Look Into The Horizon
by Ezekiellia
Summary: After Naraku is defeated for once and for all, Sesshomaru keeps travelling. But he finds the small island of Japan too small to satisfy his curiosity. So he and his loyal, annoying servant Jaken set off to find greater challenges on the other side of the sea. What will they encounter outside the safety of home?
1. Across the Ocean

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters of the Manga/Anime Inuyasha

Darkness is the only word that could be used to describe this one particular night, on which our story begins.

It was a raw and dark January night. The wind, although not very strong, was as cold as a shard of ice. There was no snow; there was nothing to help decorate and soften the awfully frozen landscape. The small waves of seawater crashed onto the reefs off the west coast of Japan as if they were also joining in the never ending war of the feudal era. It was on such a night, that a sad parting was to take place, and a new adventure was to begin.

Near the edge of the tall cliff above the beach below, illuminated under the tiny amount of light afforded by the stars dotted across the black sky, was a tall figure. The long silver hair flowed elegantly in the cold wind, and a large band of fur billowed behind it. Beside the fur stood the shadowy figure of a child, sharp bangs framing her face.

"Sesshomaru-sama, Rin will miss you. Rin wants to be with Sesshomaru-sama forever," The child whispered in a cheerful yet sad voice.

Sesshomaru said nothing, but put his arm around Rin. The truth was that he didn't know what to say. She may have been the only person who he expected himself to miss. He didn't want to leave her either.

"Sesshomaru-sama!"

The cold silence of the night was broken by the loud screeching of we-all-know-who. Jaken staggered up the hill to the seaside where his lord stood, dragging with him a gigantic sackful of provisions. A small boat was anchored at the beach, ready to be boarded.

Jaken was followed by a familiar two-headed dragon and a short, fat raccoon-dog. Everyone except Jaken seemed to feel the sadness exaggerated by the awful climate. This may explain why Jaken got walloped on the head so frequently.

"Sesshomaru-sama, should we leave now?" Jaken asked, running up to Sesshomaru.

Rin turned around to face him. Her eyes were watery, although Jaken couldn't understand why. Then, the little girl suddenly sprang upon the small impish creature and pulled him into her arms.

"Jaken-sama, Rin will miss you too," she said, crying slightly.

"Get off, silly child!" Jaken yelled at Rin.

Sesshomaru shot a deadly glare at Jaken, which did the job of shutting him up. The powerful dog-demon then turned and started walking slowly down the hill towards the docked boat.

"Jaken-sama," Rin said with her usual cheerful voice while drying her tears, "this is for you. Kagome-sama and Inuyasha-sama bought it."

Rin produced a small, thick brown book. It had a leather, handmade cover and a ballpoint pen attached to the pages.

"It's called a diary," Rin explained, "write about your journey while you're on the other side of the sea, and when you come back, we can read it together."

She laid the book in Jaken's hands. For one moment, even Jaken felt that he did not want to part from this sweet little girl.

"Let's go, Jaken," Sesshomaru said with a seemingly emotionless voice. He then stopped, turned around again and said sternly, "Hachiemon, Ah-Un, take care of Rin."

Hachi nodded, approached Rin and took her hand. Rin appreciated the friendly raccoon-dog very much. After a moment, she reluctantly turned and went with Hachi. It had been her 12th birthday present to spend two months with Sesshomaru, and now he was leaving again. But this journey would not be like the ones before. Rin knew very well that Sesshomaru would not be back to visit her in the next week or month.

As the dog-demon walked off into the distance, Rin called out to him, "Sesshomaru-sama! Rin will be waiting right here for your return!"

Sesshomaru heard those words very clearly, but he did not for one moment take them seriously. He knew that he wasn't going to see her again anytime soon. He expected that she would get tired of waiting and go back to Kaede's village within a week.

Sesshomaru was completely absorbed in his own thoughts as he elegantly boarded the boat. Jaken scrambled on after him, clumsily clutching the oar. The little imp annoyed Sesshomaru more than a little bit, as he pulled and pulled at the anchor but couldn't get it out of the water. One flick of the poison whip and that job was done.

As the little boat left the shore and drifted away into the vast blue blanket of water, Rin could clearly be seen on the top of the cliff. She was sitting on Ah-Un, and waving her arm as a last farewell, as the tiny boat got ever smaller and smaller, and disappeared over the horizon.

* * *

_Jaken's Diary ~~ January 3rd 1502 ~~_  
_I can see the sunrise over the horizon. But nothing else. Water, water, water. We have been drifting on this little boat all night. Sesshomaru-sama told me to stop rowing as soon as we couldn't see land anymore. He has been sitting in the boat and not saying a word since then. When Sesshomaru-sama is silent, I get ever so worried. This book reminds me of Rin. I will miss that girl. Sesshomaru-sama probably will too._

_But Sesshomaru-sama is a man of pride. When he has an idea, he will act on it. But his newest idea surprised me, even though I have been following him as his loyal servant for centuries. Sesshomaru-sama found the lands we were familiar with too small to contain his vast curiosity. He may have got the idea from Menomaru, but he decided to seek out adventure and challenge beyond the seas at the west. So here we are, adrift, bound for the mainland._

_~~ January 5th ~~_  
_This pen Kagome brought from her land is very strange. It doesn't need any ink to work. Her land has many convenient things. We have been drifting for two days, and we haven't seen as much as a reef. It really does feel like we're in the middle of an abyss. I'm worried. Sesshomaru-sama doesn't say a word. I tried to cheer him up by singing a song for him. I thought the song was pretty good. But he hit me on the head anyway._

_~~ January 9th ~~_  
_We saw a few small islands today, but Sesshomaru-sama said not to stop. He said there is nothing of value on these tiny islands in the middle of the sea. Nothing except for seagulls. *sighs*_

_~~ January 15th ~~_  
_We have been drifting for 12 days now. We are in the middle of the sea and the waves are ever so violent. They jerk the boat here and there, and that is why my handwriting is a mess. The waves want to swallow us! All the food I brought was supposed to last us two weeks, but thanks to my seasickness I have not eaten even one week's supply of food yet. I'm afraid that I will not make it to the mainland to serve Sesshomaru-sama...(writing is followed by a brown patch on the book. Jaken threw up.)_

_~~ January 18th ~~_  
_It is a wonder that I have not yet passed away to the netherworld from three days of ensuing seasickness._

_~~ January 22nd ~~_  
_The wild waves seem to have calmed down a bit. Now I can eat the dried food I brought without always being afraid of throwing up again. The wind has not changed direction for a long time. Nor has Sesshomaru-sama changed the direction that he is staring at. He hasn't said a word for days. He hasn't moved for days. He makes me so worried. He sits and stares into space for ages._

_~~ January 26th ~~_  
_It has been more than three weeks since we left home. I wonder if we will find land before my provisions run out. I hope we do. I don't want to die here! I don't want to leave Sesshomaru-sama! The weather is a little bit warmer, although it is still very cold. I have been sleeping the days away. Sesshomaru-sama's fur is a great pillow, it feels so wonderful!_

_~~ January 28th ~~_  
_It has been exactly 25 days. No land. I wonder if we will get to the mainland or perish here_-_-...Sesshomaru-sama hit my head when he read that. Because...OH MY! LAND! Right there, on the horizon! Finally! It's real! It's land!_

* * *

Jaken slammed his journal shut, and gazed into the distance. Yes, land it was. A white beach, followed by thick trees in the distance. Finally, after twenty-five days of drifting, they had reached their intended destination.

Sesshomaru stood up from the position he had been sitting in for the past three weeks, and joined Jaken at the front of the boat. There, he looked carefully at the land before him. This time, it was not a small island. Sesshomaru once again had his usual emotionless expression as he stared at the new land which greeted him warmly. The cold wind blew on his thick fur, making it fly magnificently behind his handsome figure.

Master and servant looked ahead, preparing to greet the long adventure that awaited them.


	2. Deity of the East

"Land, land! Sesshomaru-sama, look! Land!" Jaken screamed in delight at his lord as if he was blind and couldn't see for himself.

"Silence, Jaken."

"Uh, yes," Jaken said as he shrunk back to the edge of the boat and continued rowing towards the new land in front of them.

Then Jaken, who was almost having a fit from excitement, lost control of the oar. The boat crashed heavily into a reef, and Sesshomaru's anger could be seen on his eyebrows.

The powerful dog-demon gently lifted off the boat and flew in the direction of the land, leaving his clumsy servant behind. Jaken stared in dismay, but he knew that he had to find a way to catch up with his master.

Taking his first step onto the shore, Sesshomaru sniffed the air around him. His keen sense of smell easily detected the presence of humans. Several humans. He walked past a few trees, and gazed across the beach.

On the shore a short distance away was a small port. Another boat had just arrived at the pier and two people were leaving it. Two young fishermen, strangely dressed. Sesshomaru had never seen people dressed like they were before. They did not have a 'left-over-right' shirt collar like he did, and their clothes were not held by an obi. They had coats that were somehow pinned over them by little black dots that Sesshomaru did not know were called buttons. They wore thick pants, obviously to keep warm in the cold weather, and their hair was tied up on the top of their head.

At this point, one of the fishermen looked up, and saw a tall figure dressed in white standing on the sandy beach. He pointed it out to his companion.

"Look, who is that?" The first fisherman asked. His companion stared for a moment.

"I can't say I've seen him before. What strange clothes he wears," the second fisherman reasoned, "Do you think he could be a wokou?"

"A pirate from the east? Like the ones who robbed us last month? I have to say that he wears similar clothes to those rascals, but he has white hair! Could he be a deity?"

"Who knows? Foreigners are weird."

They chuckled to each other and continued with the routines of their peaceful life. Sesshomaru could hear their conversation clearly, but he couldn't understand a word of the strange gibberish they were speaking. This annoyed him to no end.

"Sesshomaru-sama!" Jaken wailed as he finally made it to shore, "Wait for me, Sesshomaru-sama!"

Sesshomaru turned and walked through the sand towards the clearing beyond the beach. Jaken desperately chased after him, then tripped up and received a faceful of sand.

* * *

_Jaken's Diary ~~ January 29th 1502 ~~_  
_Sesshomaru-sama and I wandered around the shoreline all day yesterday. He took much care to avoid the humans. He, as a superior traveler, is expertly surveying the land. These people here are weird. They wear things that look like potato sacks to me, and their sandals are made of dried grass. But they seem so happy, as if something nice is about to happen. We'll stick around to see what it is that they're anticipating so much._

* * *

"Sesshomaru-sama!" Jaken screamed as he scrambled up to his lord.

Sesshomaru was standing silently on a green hilltop, looking down at the human village below. It was a rather strange village, as the houses looked so different than the ones they had been used to.

"Sesshomaru-sama! Our food has run out!"

"Quiet, Jaken, or this Sesshomaru will kill you."

Jaken flinched terribly, and then silently sat beside Sesshomaru. He decided that after all, starvation was way better than feeling the wrath of his master.

Sesshomaru examined the village carefully. The people seemed very cheerful, as if they were celebrating something. They all wore beautiful, new and brightly coloured clothing, and were talking to one another. Some of them were eating meat and drinking alcohol. The children were playing, running around in the open spaces.

Then all of a sudden one man lit something on fire, and brightly coloured sparks flew into the sky, followed by a loud bang. It was such a magnificent sight, especially since Sesshomaru and Jaken had never seen fireworks before.

"Wow, what a wonder!" Jaken exclaimed, "People on the other side of the sea really are amazing!"

They gawked on as more different coloured fireworks were set off into the sky. The celebration was heating up. Loud percussion instruments were played as a red dragon danced around in the street. It was really a cloth puppet that was carried by a group of youths, but nevertheless it looked wonderfully artistic. Sesshomaru appreciated what this unfamiliar land had to offer.

Then, suddenly, his expression changed, and his eyes turned to the beach.

_A demonic aura. So this land also has demons in it, after all._ The powerful yokai thought.

A gigantic slimy green thing was creeping through the forest and towards the village. The humans were completely absorbed in watching the dancing dragon, and nobody noticed the creature's presence at all. Sesshomaru pitied them slightly, as he knew what was going to happen to at least some of the unfortunate people.

Just as the red dragon approached the far house on one edge of the village, a shout was heard, followed by several unintelligible yells. A huge crocodile demon leaped out of the bush and sprang into the village. It chased the unfortunate people down the road, snapping at every poor soul with its humongous jaws. The cries for help were drowned by the sound of the crocodile's scales destroying the houses and reducing goods to rubble.

"Hn..." was Sesshomaru's only reaction to this disaster. He was too used to seeing such tragedies. The dog-demon turned around and walked away, deciding to leave the miserable village as it was. Jaken sighed, and followed after his master.

Then suddenly, an awfully loud, piercing scream shot from the pillaged village.

That one scream stopped Sesshomaru dead in his tracks. That one scream made his heart thump like a drum somewhere near his throat. That one scream sounded exactly like...Rin.

Sesshomaru felt his body move outside of his control. He flew down the hill and towards the village like a person whose pants are on fire. He felt his own hand grab the white, patterned hilt of his signature sword.

"Bakusaiga!"

The oversized crocodile froze where it stood, as sparks leaped out of its back. The next instant it had been cut clean in half and its huge carcass was laying lifelessly on the ground.

Replacing Bakusaiga in its sheath and landing softly on the flat ground, Sesshomaru looked at the huge hand of the dead beast. There, laying unmoving, was a girl who looked about sixteen years old. She wasn't Rin, but she was obviously the one who had screamed earlier. Her new purple outfit was pitifully torn and covered with dust, and her neatly plaited hair was despicably messed up. But at least she was alive.

Sesshomaru approached the girl, kneelled down beside her and gently laid his hand on her back. He was pleased to find that she was not injured, just like he was when Rin was revived for the second time.

The girl opened her eyes, and her dark brown pupils gazed at the strange being who was beside her. She sat up, completely speechless. Sesshomaru got to his feet and stepped away from her.

At this point, other villagers emerged from the rubble they had been hiding behind, and crowded around the giant corpse of the crocodile demon. They stood and stared silently at the sight before them.

Then, suddenly, a middle-aged woman, clearly distressed, ran from the crowd and fell to her knees in front of the girl who had just been saved from the awful beast.

"Oh, my daughter!" She cried, thrusting her arms around the girl, "you're okay, thank goodness, you're okay..."

"Mother, don't cry," replied the sensible girl. Then, turning around, she said cheerfully, "Mother, this big brother here saved me from the crocodile!"

She pointed at Sesshomaru, who was standing beside her with his usual emotionless expression. They didn't know that he was really five hundred years old, and nor did they seem to realize that he couldn't understand what they were saying. The dog-demon turned and walked away, as the little crowd of villagers continued to stare in silence.

"Hey!" A voice screamed, "It's that person! I told you that strange person was a deity!"

From around the corner ran a young fisherman, dragging another man with him. He ran in front of Sesshomaru and blocked his path.

"_Goddess_ from the eastern oceans!" The retardedly naive fisherman said dramatically in Sesshomaru's face, "Thank you so much for saving us, we are eternally grateful! Please accept our repayment and stay at our humble village for one night!"

Sesshomaru was annoyed. Very, very annoyed, because he _couldn't understand them!_ Besides, if he could, then the young fisherman would have died a horrendous death. Traveling overseas was proving to be much more stressful than Sesshomaru had thought earlier.

"Yes, yes, stay with us, dear Buddha from the east!" Muttered the other villagers.

At this point, Jaken came huffing and puffing down the hill and up to Sesshomaru. He was very surprised to see the sea of people in front of his lord.

By then, even the naive fisherman had realized that this strange deity didn't speak Chinese. And we all hope that he had also gotten over his gender confusion, but we can't be completely sure of that.

The man tried a series of hand gestures on this 'God from the east'. He pointed to Sesshomaru, and then pointed to a house. He pretended to eat a bowl of invisible rice, and then pretended to sleep on air. Sesshomaru, being the intelligent demon he was, got the message, but also got extremely annoyed.

"They're offering us food, Sesshomaru-sama!" Jaken squawked with his beaky mouth, "Lets stay here and eat!"

"You have one hour," Sesshomaru said coldly, before turning and leaving the wrecked village.

Jaken just remembered that his lord did not eat human food. But _he_ did, so he gladly followed the villagers inside without hesitation.


	3. Encounters Upon the Mountain

The sky was turning orange, as the sun descended into the ocean. The air was cool and fresh, although slightly tainted by the salty smell of the sea.

Sesshomaru stood beside the beach, staring emptily into the beautiful sunset. It reminded him of a memory that he would never forget; a memory that he was bound to carry with him for the rest of his life.

_Jaken is late, I gave him one hour,_ He thought.

Then, he felt a presence beside him, and turned around. Standing behind him was the purple-clothed girl who he saved from the crocodile demon earlier that day. She was no longer wearing her ruined purple clothes, though.

The girl looked at Sesshomaru, as if she wanted to say something. But she remained silent, perhaps because she knew that whatever she said, he wouldn't understand anyway. So someone else spoke instead of her.

"Sesshomaru-sama!" Jaken called out, approaching the beach, "Should we go now?"

The powerful dog-demon turned and walked away, with Jaken following him. Jaken once again carried a huge bag stuffed full of goods provided by the villagers.

Then, unexpectedly, Sesshomaru felt someone grab his arm. It made Jaken's jaw drop, because nobody ever _dared_ to touch the demon. Of course, it was the girl.

"My name is Lianhua," She said despite knowing of the language barrier, "Don't forget me, kind big brother."

She removed a flowery hairclip from her plaits and gave it to the dog-demon. Sesshomaru felt mildly irritated, but didn't snap at her. He simply shook his arm free and left Lianhua standing where she was.

"Let's go, Jaken."

"Huh?" Replied Jaken. He had been in a daze, staring at the scene which he could not comprehend. But as soon as he heard those familiar words, he immediately scurried after his master once again.

Sesshomaru did not turn back even once, and the village soon disappeared from their sight.

* * *

_Jaken's Diary ~~ February 18th 1502 ~~_  
_Sesshomaru-sama and I have been wandering the wilderness for many days now. It feels just like old times, except the climate here feels different. The air smells different. Thank goodness I got the villagers back there to pack a huge bag of food for me, otherwise I would have starved by now._

_When I took all the food out of the bag I found something interesting at the bottom of it. It was a gift from the villagers. This little flat circular-shaped thing. It had this interesting stick in it, and no matter how much I turned the thing around the stick always pointed in the same direction._

_I asked Sesshomaru-sama, he said that he had heard of it. It's called a compass or something like that, and it was invented in the mainland to help people know what direction they're traveling in. It always points South, no matter where you are. This place has some pretty interesting things._

* * *

"Sesshomaru-sama! We're going north, right? Where are we going, Sesshomaru-sama?" Jaken barreled on as usual.

And just like old days, Sesshomaru gave him the silent treatment, as they walked on. They had passed mountain after mountain, and river after river. The landscape was very elegant, but it would seem as if beautiful landscapes were not what Sesshomaru was after. He couldn't care less about the environment.

The weather was much warmer, and the sun was brighter, softly illuminating the unique flora of Southern China.

"...Jaken..."

"Yes, my lord?" Jaken peeped. It wasn't too often that Sesshomaru would willingly talk to him.

"You will be left behind."

"Huh?"

Jaken looked out. Sesshomaru had changed courses ages ago, and now he was far, far away, barely visible.

"No! Wait for me, Sesshomaru-sama!" Jaken screamed as he ran after his master, stumbling and tripping on the way. How he wished that Ah-Un was with them, but Sesshomaru had given Ah-Un to Rin a year ago.

Sesshomaru was walking in the direction of a large, green mountain a fair distance away. There was something off about that particular mountain. The surrounding forests were full of birds and animals, and bustling with life. But that mountain itself was eerily silent, as if it was completely lifeless.

_A demonic aura, how very rare. There's not very many demons around here,_ Thought Sesshomaru.

"Sesshomaru-sama, what might we find here?" Jaken questioned his master as they reached the summit. He received no reply.

Then, exaggerating the hair-raising environment, came a deep rumble from below the ground on which they stood.

"Who...who willingly entered my lair?" A low voice grumbled. The voice seemed to come from somewhere deep down in the Earth.

Jaken whimpered in fear, beads of sweat running down his screwed face. He ran behind his master and grabbed onto Sesshomaru's white pants. Displeased, Sesshomaru proceeded to trample the poor green thing like he always did when he was very mad. But Sesshomaru was really wondering why there would be a creature here who could speak their language.

"Who?! Who is it?" The voice sounded like bullets hitting a wall, even though bullets hadn't been invented yet.

"...Sesshomaru..."

Sesshomaru gave Jaken a kick to the face, which sent him flying. The unfortunate green imp fell down the steep hill and landed on his backside. He gawked up at his lord, half-expecting some awfully huge demon to appear out of nowhere and start a fierce fight.

But absolutely nothing happened. Not one sound, not one movement. The eerie silence continued. Neither master nor servant expected this.

"What is this supposed to mean, Sesshomaru-sama?" Jaken yelled from below.

Sesshomaru did not answer, but scanned the ground around him carefully with his keen eyes. Then, he turned and took one step in Jaken's direction. It was only then that he learned the reason behind this silence.

Jaken sighed in relief.

_That thing is a coward after all, no match for a great demon like Sesshomaru-sama,_ he thought.

But all of a sudden, even Jaken noticed that something was wrong. Sesshomaru stood there, not moving at all.

The yokai struggled, but found that he was bound to his current position by a force that he could not see. He reached for the Bakusaiga, but his hand couldn't quite make it there. Panic overcame the usually calm Sesshomaru, although he did not show it on his face. In desperation, he looked up in search for a life-saving epiphany. And sure enough, he found it above his head.

There, floating in the air, was a _dead_ bird. The carcass was rotting and as dead as a door nail, but still it was floating in mid-air.

_Could this be...?_

"Jaken!" Sesshomaru said forcefully, "Use your Staff of Two Heads! Throw fire at me!"

"Sesshomaru-sama! Have you gone mad?" The flabbergasted servant yelled back.

Sesshomaru gave Jaken a glare. The most deadliest, coldest, angriest glare he could possibly manage. Such glares were reserved for times when getting a point across to Jaken could mean the difference between life and death.

It worked; Jaken gritted his teeth in fear and did as he was told. He scurried up the hillside, tripping up on a dozen different rocks on the way. Then, holding up the Staff of Two Heads and turning his face away, the loyal servant hurled a cloud of flames at his lord.

When he opened his eyes again, Jaken greeted the most amazing sight. His jaw dropped, and his huge yellow eyes became even bigger than they already were.

There in front of him, charred and black from the flames, was a monstrously enormous spider web. The web stretched across the summit of the mountain, and was wrapped several layers thick around Sesshomaru.

Fighting an opponent is much, much easier when the opponent can be seen. Waving his staff wildly, Jaken cut through one thread of spider web and freed Sesshomaru's right arm.

In a jiffy, Sesshomaru had drawn out his Bakusaiga and torn all the visible webs around him into shreds.

"Sesshomaru-sama, you're a genius!" Jaken complimented, "These silly things don't stand a chance!"

"Jaken, step away. The webs are poisonous," Sesshomaru replied.

Jaken shrieked in surprise and and took several steps back, loosing his footing and falling down the hillside once again.

Sesshomaru approached the food-sack that Jaken had accidentally dropped, and picked up the water bottle inside it. He then narrowed his vision, and pinpointed the area which all the webs came from. Sure enough, there was something shiny underneath a particular rock.

Without any warning whatsoever, Sesshomaru splashed the entire bottle of water into the crack under the rock. A mighty groan was heard, followed by a small earthquake.

"Bakusaiga!"

Sesshomaru cut into the soil beside the rock. Emerging from the soil screeching in pain, was a gigantic spider.

"Hn!" The dog-demon grunted at his pitifully cowardly opponent. He sheathed the Bakusaiga, and flung out his poison whip.

"That whip will not harm me!" The enraged spider scowled, "I am the king of all poison!"

The spider's tiny brain couldn't comprehend the meaning of actually using tactics when fighting instead of plain brute strength. Sesshomaru flung the poison whip at the eight-legged beast, flogging it straight in one of its huge legs. The whip was wrapped around the spider's leg and tied in a knot. The spider was taken by surprise.

Sesshomaru gave the spider one huge tug, and it lost its balance completely. The great dirty beast slid down the steep hillside, and fell into the rushing river below the mountain. Spiders, who hate water, cannot swim an inch. The big creature was soon drowned and washed downstream to a watery grave.

Sesshomaru landed on the ground with great elegance, proud to have been victorious once again. Jaken ran up to his master and his food-sack with tears of happiness in his eyes, although Sesshomaru just found him repulsive.

Dust was stirred into the air, and by the time the cloud of dirt had dissipated, Sesshomaru noticed a shadowy figure standing in the distance, shrouded in the mist. It was a young man, and he started speaking at once.

"Who's there?" The man spoke in Japanese, "Inu no Taisho? Is that really you? It's been so long!"

The man, not realizing that he wasn't talking to Inu no Taisho, walked towards Sesshomaru with a huge grin on his face.

"Taisho-nichan! I haven't seen you in years! Why, thank you for getting rid of that horrendous spider!"

The oblivious young man approached Sesshomaru, and upon seeing that he wasn't Inu no Taisho, the man's face fell a mile. Then, his eyes suddenly brightened up again, as soon as he saw the Tenseiga at Sesshomaru's side.


	4. Uncle Spotty

"Ugh, sorry," the man said politely to Sesshomaru, "Do you by any chance know the great dog general?"

Sesshomaru eyed the strange man from top to bottom. The tall man was wearing a thick, dark top held together on one side by buttons, and big pants very much similar to the ones Sesshomaru had seen before. His shoes seemed to be made of a type of fine cloth. On his left side, pinned to his wide belt, was a sword that looked nothing like a katana. His hair was a gray-ish silver, and was tied neatly in a bun. The man had dark skin and his thin face was covered with dozens of moles, making him look ten times uglier than Jaken.

But as Sesshomaru's gaze focused on the man's face, he was shocked. The stranger's cheeks had no stripes of any kind, but on his forehead was a blue crescent moon entirely identical to his own.

"Who are you, and why do you possess the sword of the great dog general?" The man continued.

"Sesshomaru, lord of the western lands, son and heir of the Inu no Taisho," Sesshomaru finally introduced himself.

Jaken listened in awe to his lord's dramatic introduction.

"Oh, Sesshomaru!" The strange man exclaimed, "My, do you look so much like your mother!"

Sesshomaru didn't say a word.

The man then stared at Jaken, and picked him up by his coat collar. Jaken shrieked and squealed and struggled to get away, but to no avail.

"_What_ is this?" The man questioned Sesshomaru while pointing at Jaken. Sesshomaru was hardly interested in pointless questions that he didn't know the answer to anyway.

"Ah, I forgot to introduce myself!" The man chirped while dropping Jaken, who fell flat on his face, "People call me Banban. I'm a distant cousin of Inukimi, the respected consort of the great dog general. We share a common ancestor named Lanhuagou, who lived here in the mainland two thousand years ago."

"And that makes you the uncle of Sesshomaru-sama?" Jaken asked, wiping dirt off his face.

"Hn..." Sesshomaru sounded as he stared in disgust at his newly introduced uncle, "You're a half-demon."

"Ahem!" Banban cleared his throat and replied, "Three-quarters."

This new, strange uncle seemed like a show-off to begin with. To demonstrate his demonic powers to Sesshomaru, Banban leaped into the air and transformed into his true form.

Jaken stared for a moment, and then roared with laughter.

In front of them was a huge, flying dog. It had cute, floppy ears and its white coat was dotted with black spots. The only thing he had in common with Sesshomaru was the blue moon upon his forehead. When Banban saw Jaken laughing, he flew into a rage and growled, but his quiet growl only made him sound like he was purring. Jaken laughed even harder.

"Grrrrr..." Banban boomed, before turning to Sesshomaru and telling him something in dog language.

Sesshomaru followed Banban's cue and also transformed into his dog form. The eccentric uncle flew off into the distance, and Sesshomaru followed after him.

"Hey! Sesshomaru-sama! Don't leave me!" Jaken screamed in despair. But his lord was already nowhere to be seen.

* * *

_Jaken's Diary ~~ February 22nd 1502 ~~_  
_Four days ago, after a long, long time of waiting, Sesshomaru-sama came to get me. We went to stay at his strange uncle's home, which was this awful den of thieves._

_Banban-sama leads a clan of homeless things, including assorted demons and also some human outcasts. Apparently, the exorcists and monks in the mainland are very good at their jobs, and almost all lesser demons have gone extinct. Banban-sama has formed a demon guild purely for the sake of survival._

_~~February 25th ~~_  
_Staying with Lord Uncle is not as bad as sleeping in a forest. There's lots of other demons, and there's even my own kind! I met this nice girl yesterday, and she didn't think I'm short! The mainland is so wonderful._

_~~February 28th ~~_  
_Sesshomaru-sama doesn't speak to me. He spends all day wandering around with Lord Uncle, discussing about this and that. Banban-sama introduced Sesshomaru-sama to his clan, who don't speak our language. Now Sesshomaru-sama has to get used to a newly transliterated name, and he is working hard day and night to learn this strange local language they call Mandarin._

_~~March 1st ~~_  
_I heard from a friendly wolf-demon in the clan that Hyoga, the moth demon the great dog general once fought, was really a bitter outcast. After a tryst with a group of powerful Daoists, the great dirty moth fled East, and eventually attacked Inu no Taisho's army. Sesshomaru-sama's father was victorious and Hyoga was killed. That certainly served the rascal right! But who would have known that he had a son called Menomaru while in Japan? But that awful Menomaru also came to a sticky end anyway._

_~~March 5th ~~_  
_Food of the mainland is strange. The spices they use here are very hot, and everyone eats from the same plate. I cannot get used to it! Because of this, I mostly just eat rice. Sesshomaru-sama seems to not mind though, since his magnificence doesn't eat human food anyway. The entire clan likes Sesshomaru-sama, and they even like me! I never want to leave this place!_

_~~March 9th ~~_  
_Sesshomaru-sama just told me that we will be leaving tomorrow._

_~~March 10th ~~_  
_I'm packing my things. I will bring as big a bag of food as I can carry._

* * *

Banban and Sesshomaru walked slowly down the mountain, not talking to each other. Jaken stumbled behind them, staggering with a humongous sack on his back.

"Why, oh why did those wretched kids have to put so many apples and oranges into my food sack?!" Jaken mumbled, barely able to walk another step without collapsing.

Sesshomaru and Banban had both stopped, and Jaken ran straight into Sesshomaru, squashing his food sack and spilling orange juice all over the dog demon's clean, white hakama.

A series of loud thumps and screams for mercy echoed around the mountains, before Sesshomaru left in a huff with his uncle, leaving Jaken laying face down on the ground.

"Why those cursed kids..."

Sesshomaru and Banban reached the bottom of the mountains, where they greeted a vast, open area of land. Visible in the distance was a network of rice fields.

"This is where I leave you, Sesshomaru-kun," Banban said, turning to his 'nephew', "I was very much saddened to hear that the great dog general had passed on. I will miss you, so I say this in the place of your father. Take care, son."

Sesshomaru gave the man a disapproving look, but did not object. Then, unexpectedly, Banban gave the cold-hearted demon a huge friendly hug. That did it. Sesshomaru snapped, and pushed the annoying uncle away.

"Goodbye, Banban-ojisan..." Sesshomaru said coldly as he trailed off into the distance, "Jaken! Run faster or this Sesshomaru will kill you."

Jaken scrambled after his lord, desperately attempting to pack the squashed oranges back into his food sack, but they kept falling out again. Jaken was visibly near tears.

"Head North, Sesshomaru-kun! Use your compass!" Banban yelled, "Don't forget to avoid shrines, exorcists and police! And always speak Chinese!"

Sesshomaru was very annoyed, since the eccentric uncle had told him that same truckload of words over three times already. He walked off in the direction of the rice fields, not paying attention to Banban's screeching or Jaken's demands that he slow down.

* * *

_Jaken's Diary ~~ March 15th 1502 ~~_  
_We have passed many different rice fields in the past five days, and we are now in a more costal area. The weather is not getting any warmer, perhaps because we are traveling North. Sesshomaru-sama is taking care to avoid all human beings, and so am I. But I can't entirely avoid them, because I need food to survive._

_During my time with Rin, I have learned from her the fine art of stealing things. When I get hungry, I go into the rice fields and loot some rice. Although the rice isn't quite mature yet at this time of the year, it's better than nothing. Scarecrows don't work on the great master Jaken!_

_~~March 17th~~~_  
_Today when I went to steal rice a farmer saw me, mistook me for a thieving child and beat me with a stick. I asked Sesshomaru-sama to kill that awful peasant, but he just gave me another thump on the head for being caught stealing. My life is so tough._


	5. Jaken's Lethal Alcoholism

_Jaken's Diary ~~ April 21st 1502~~_  
_Sesshomaru-sama and I have been walking none-stop for a long time. There are less small rivers now, and we're probably a bit more inland, in a less costal area. We did pass a big river though, although the name of that river escapes me._

_Sesshomaru-sama has forbidden me to steal food from humans ever since I got caught and beaten by that one rice farmer more than a month ago. Now I have to scavenge for food and live on wild vegetation. I am so hungry, and Sesshomaru-sama will never understand my pain, because his magnificence doesn't eat human food._

* * *

A soft thud was heard on the grass. Sesshomaru turned around to face his annoying little servant, who had fallen to the ground.

"Jaken, get up."

"Milord!" Jaken whimpered, "I can't, Sesshomaru-sama! If I don't have something to eat, I will die of starvation!"

The powerful dog-demon thought for a moment, and then looked ahead. In the distance was a medium-sized town, bustling with life. There was no large gate or soldiers at the entrance of that particular town. Entering it and finding some food seemed like a fairly easy task.

"We walk through this town tonight," Sesshomaru stated plainly, "You can find food then."

Jaken staggered to his feet and ran after his lord, who was already walking away.

Nightfall was an extraordinary sight. The small town became quiet at sunset, as lamps were lit and people retired into their houses. Lots of different aromas of cooking food wafted above various buildings, as each family prepared their supper.

Jaken stood outside the entrance of the peaceful town, drooling from all the delicious smells floating in the air. He could not control himself, and started running towards the nearest building, until a scary voice stopped him.

"Jaken! Get back here or I'll kill you."

"Yes, Sesshomaru-sama," Jaken sulked as he slumped back to his master's side.

Master and servant waited outside the entrance until the stars and moon told them that it was three hours before sunrise. By then, nearly all the candlelights had vanished and every lamp had been put out. The entire town was silently sleeping.

"Now, Jaken."

"Yes, sir!" Jaken said triumphantly as if he had just won a gold medal in the Olympics. That earned him a huge punch in the head, since it was a wonder he didn't wake up the whole town with his loud voice.

There was only one lone guard on sentry duty at the wide entrance.

"Should I kill him with my staff, Sesshomaru-sama?" Jaken questioned stupidly, rubbing the big bump on the top of his head.

Sesshomaru was much wiser than his idiotic servant. He wasn't the type to go looking for trouble by unnecessarily killing someone while in a foreign land. The powerful dog-demon casually picked up a stone from the ground and threw it to one side of the entrance. Sure enough, the stone easily captured the guard's attention. The guard walked over to the source of the noise to check. At that precise moment, Sesshomaru hurled another bigger rock at him. With uncanny accuracy, the rock hit the guard on his head and knocked him out cold.

"Wow!" Jaken whispered in order to avoid another beating, "Sesshomaru-sama is the most amazing demon ever!"

Sesshomaru was already inside the town, and Jaken scurried after him.

Jaken quietly followed his lord through the dark and silent street. Snoring could be heard from many of the small houses around them, and not one person was outside. The only building still softly illuminated by candlelight was the large inn beside the entrance, which Sesshomaru took care to avoid.

Stopping and sightseeing along the way, Jaken soon realized that Sesshomaru was nowhere to be seen. His lord had walked off too fast and the unfortunate servant was now all alone, lost in the maze of narrow streets within the unfamiliar town.

"Sesshomaru-sama?" Jaken whimpered, suddenly afraid of the eerie place, "Sesshomaru-sama, where are you?"

Jaken wandered around alone, until he approached a large open space. There, on the ground, was a huge black thing that caught his attention.

He walked closer to the object six times his height, and found that it was an awfully large and wide vase, which had been crafted from clay. It had a red lid on the gigantic round opening at the top, and a square-shaped label on one side. Jaken stepped closer to the label made of red paper, and saw that there was one Chinese character written on it with jet black ink:

**酒**

Jaken rubbed his big yellow eyes and stared at the Chinese character. The little imp had never been good at reading kanji, but he recognized the word vaguely. Jaken scratched his head and flipped through his memory bank.

"This word..." Jaken mumbled, before exclaiming, "That's it! It's 'LIQUOR'! This container must be full of liquor!"

Jaken stepped closer to the humongous vase, rubbing his little hands together. Secretly, Jaken had always been a huge alcoholic, and traveling with Sesshomaru meant that he didn't get his green hands on booze very often. Without any hesitation, the small imp jumped onto the side of the enormous container, opened it a fraction and climbed in, replacing the lid behind him.

After an hour, Sesshomaru approached the square of open space, holding a sack of stolen food. He could smell Jaken with his sensitive nose, but here the scent was covered by the strong smell of alcohol.

_Where in the world did that cursed Jaken go?_ The dog demon thought.

He glanced up at the huge liquor container, examining the character written on the label. Sesshomaru was never interested in what humans drank to get high, so he left the big vase without giving it a second look.

Jaken awoke to the sound of loud drums, before getting a faceful of liquor. The container was rocking steadily, as if it was being carried.

"Oh, my head..." The little imp croaked. His voice was strange and he had the worst hangover of his life. Jaken was floating around in liquor, surprisingly still alive and not drowned or suffocated. He was also far too drunk to even consider where he was or what would happen if someone discovered him.

Then, all of a sudden, the swaying halted and the liquor container was laid onto flat ground. This made Jaken partially regain his sanity. He opened the lid a tiny bit, just enough to see out of.

There, in front of him, were several more liquor containers identical to the one he was hiding inside. In front of that was a huge shrine, beautifully decorated. Surrounding the pots of liquor was a humongous crowd of people who looked like regular peasants.

One man walked up to the shrine and shouted in a loud voice to the sea of people.

"The emperor has arrived!"

The entire crowd fell silent, as a man dressed in golden silk was lead slowly up to the shrine, followed by a group of threatening bodyguards. Then, the thousands of onlookers all kneeled to this one great man in an eerily synchronized fashion.

"Wow, the entire nation, kneeling to this one man!" Jaken said to himself, "Back at home, people never seem to agree with each other when it comes to deciding who's the boss."

"The emperor will now start the ceremony!" The same man screamed again in a voice that was oddly high-pitched for a guy.

But Jaken didn't have much time to think more into that, because someone suddenly hit a gong. The loud clang echoed through Jaken's head and almost made him faint from his hangover.

Then, Jaken suddenly jumped and turned pale. People who looked like soldiers were opening the liquor containers one by one! Before Jaken could do anything, the lid of his container was lifted off. He had been previously staring out of the container, and now the entire crowd could see the little green head sticking out of the opening. Jaken lost his footing and fell from the container.

"Unruly wretch!" One soldier yelled at Jaken, who was now laying on the dirty ground, "How _dare_ you hide inside the emperor's liquor?!"

Jaken understood him vaguely, but couldn't think of a suitable comeback, before he felt a cold blade pressed up against his neck. The crowd around him were all muttering and mumbling to one another, but Jaken was too drunk to pay attention to their conversations. Then, someone pulled Jaken to his feet by the back of his coat collar.

"Whatever you have to say, you can say in court!" Someone shouted in Jaken's face, before two soldiers dragged the poor creature away.


	6. In Big Trouble

Morning light shone into a rectangular hall, brightening its dull, gray walls. The hall itself looked like a dark and very serious environment, which was perfect, considering what it was used for. On one side of the hall, pinned across the wall, was an unrealistically coloured picture of waves in front of the rising sun. Sat in front of the wall, behind a tall table, was a man wearing a dark red outfit.

A group of stern people dressed in blue and red hurried along the sides of the room before standing in their positions, unmoving.

At this point, two soldiers dragged an unnaturally short little fellow into the building, and dumped him in the middle of the floor, where he lay on his face.

"He's very drunk," One of the soldiers reported awkwardly.

The red-robed judge made a hand gesture to an assistant. The assistant ran off, and returned with a big bucket of ice cold water. He approached the little fellow on the floor, and dumped the bucketful of water on his head.

Jaken awoke and staggered to his feet, coughing loudly. He was swaying terribly, and his vision was so badly blurred from his hangover that he could barely see the judge's face.

"How dare you!" A man in red and blue yelled loudly at Jaken, "You're meeting the honorable judge! Kneel!"

Jaken fell to his knees, not because he was kneeling to the judge but because he couldn't stand upright, being as drunk as he was.

"What is your name?" The judge proceeded to question Jaken with a threatening tone of voice.

Jaken found that he was by then able to understand simple phrases in Chinese, so replied, "Urgh...Jaken..."

"Speak louder!" The judge said forcefully.

"My name is Jaken!"

The judge looked at Jaken with a confused expression. He had never heard such a strange name before.

"Let me ask you," The judge proceeded anyway, "Why were you in the emperor's liquor?"

"I wanted to drink alcohol," Jaken said in the best Mandarin he could manage, being the Japanese demon he was. He was also so drunk that he was completely, utterly honest about the simple reason he was in the liquor container, without considering the consequences.

"The nerve!" The judge told Jaken.

But the judge was really wondering how a person could possibly choose to steal the emperor's alcohol of all the alcohol in the world. After all, stealing the emperor's alcohol would yield the worst consequences.

The judge sighed. An assistant approached the fallen Jaken with a document outlining everything he had said. Jaken obediently signed it, to confirm that those were his words. Then, the same two soldiers who had dragged Jaken into court dragged him out again.

Jaken was shoved into a dark room, before the barred door was closed and chained behind him. Only then did Jaken realize that he was in big trouble. In fact, he was in jail.

"No!" Jaken screamed as he grabbed the bars he was confined behind, "Sesshomaru-sama! Save me from this place!"

"Shut up!" A brutish guard yelled at Jaken, "Do you want me to beat the living shit outta you?"

Jaken whimpered in fear and shrunk back into his cell. The entire place was lightless and hellish, as was all prisons in the 16th century. The floor and walls were very dirty, making the place seem like a decent breeding ground for all sorts of pests and rodents.

Jaken unhappily sat on the pile of dried hay used by prisoners as a bed, wondering if his lord will come for him. He was bored with absolutely nothing to do, so Jaken went to sleep, despite that it was midday.

When Jaken woke up again, he found that he was no longer in the dark room. He was laying in a beautiful, flowery meadow, feeling very peaceful. He got up from where he was, and saw his beloved lord standing beside him.

"Dinner time!" Sesshomaru screamed. What? Dinner time? Sesshomaru would never say that!

The beautiful landscape in front of Jaken suddenly disappeared, and he was once again inside the awful, foul prison cell. It was unfortunately all just a dream.

"Hey, you runt! Wake up or you won't eat dinner!" A rough voice shouted.

Jaken awoke to the voice of the brutish guard. He sat up and stretched, surprised that he could have gotten several hours of unbroken sleep in such a horrid place.

A plate was laid right outside Jaken's barred cell. It made Jaken smile in delight, since he had not eaten for a whole day and a night and half another day. His stomach was rumbling in protest. He hurried to the plate, and was surprised at how good the food was.

On the plate was a big piece of steamed bread, a chunk of meat, a corn cob and even a tiny cup of alcohol.

Despite being in jail, Jaken had never been happier. He had expected to be fed the worst food he had ever eaten in his life. After all, he was in prison.

Jaken gladly dug in, wolfing down the bread and meat and munching on the corn. In five minutes, the plate was completely empty and not a single crumb was left. It was only when Jaken had finished did he notice the other prisoners.

The man in the cell facing Jaken was savagely eating a bowl of cold rice with his hands. He saw Jaken looking at him, and sighed, before shaking his head and continuing to eat with horrible table manners.

"What is wrong?" Jaken questioned the man. He only hoped that his accent wasn't too heavy.

"You don't know?" The hungry prisoner replied, "You're not from around here, are you? Well, foreign brother, here we have a tradition. Before you get executed, they feed you one nice meal. You're a goner, bro. They're probably beheading you tomorrow."

The man stopped talking and carried on eating disgustingly. Jaken stood completely still for a moment, unable to comprehend the shocking words that the man had just said to him. He had just been casually told that he had less than twenty-four hours to live. It was too much of a shock to Jaken, because he had been planning to live for at least another century or two with his most beloved lord.

The little imp whimpered, before he shrunk to one corner of the dirty cell, and cried. Jaken's sobs could be heard clearly in the hallway.

"You green maggot!" The brutish guard barked again, "Shut up before I start using your head as a sandbag!"

Jaken obediently silenced himself, as the guard's words reminded him of Sesshomaru, who also told him to shut up on a daily basis.

The prisoner who had just told Jaken of his pending doom now finished eating, and had heard what the brutish guard said.

"Hey, man," The prisoner said in a friendly manner, "Don't feel too bad, the same thing's going to happen to me. You have a safe journey to the netherworld tomorrow, okay? We'll meet again this autumn, bro."

Those words didn't make Jaken feel much better, but having a friend was better than nothing.

The next day at noon, the sun was very hot and lit up the land with its bright, white light.

Jaken was silently dragged up to the middle of a concrete square, where he stared in horror at the fearsome executioner. The executioner wore bright, red clothing and held a huge knife designed for clean decapitation. Jaken was made to kneel on the hard concrete as he waited for 'the order'. A sea of people crowded around the square to watch the execution.

"Xiejian," A tall man read out, "to be executed today at noon for outrageous disrespect towards both the emperor and the gods, trespassing and thieving. Also identified as a demon."

Jaken sighed, not caring to hear his Chinese name or his sentence. Then, looking down at the ground, Jaken saw a little wooden badge thrown in front of him, bouncing and making a sharp click as it hit the ground before his very eyes. It was an execution order, signaling the executioner to do his job. Jaken swallowed, before he started perspiring terribly.

The gigantic, shiny knife was lifted into the air, beautifully reflecting the sun's rays.

"May this be the end of Jaken!" Jaken cried out. He squeezed his eyes shut. The knife fell, before a snap was heard, followed by a thud.

But instead of dying, Jaken felt a familiar presence. He felt something warm and furry against his cheek. It could only be described as the most amazing feeling in the world. To be doomed to die, but brought back to life. Jaken had felt that feeling once before. He opened his eyes, and looked up.

"Sesshomaru-sama?" Jaken whispered. Tears fell from his big yellow eyes. Although it only made him look repulsive, Jaken's feelings of gratitude could not be more real.

"Seize him, guards!" Someone screamed, "This is an outrage!"

A ton of guards ran to arrest the strange person who had appeared out of nowhere in a flash of white light and killed an executioner. The crowd went wild in amazement.

Sesshomaru looked around at the guards emotionlessly, his amber eyes glowing orange under the sunlight. Then, without any warning whatsoever, he drew out his golden-green poison whip and iconically swung it in a circle around himself.

Nothing moved for an eerie moment. Then, every single guard collapsed onto the ground, dead.

When the crowd saw this, the air was filled with screams of terror. Chaotically, everyone tried to run away from the strangely dressed aristocratic assassin before them. Before anyone could even compute what had just happened, Sesshomaru and Jaken were both nowhere to be seen.

* * *

_Jaken's Diary ~~April 23rd 1502~~_  
_Sesshomaru-sama and I left that horrible town. Once we got to a remote place, I finally felt safe. But unfortunately, I couldn't escape a dreaded beating after all. Sesshomaru-sama beat me to a pulp for getting us into that much trouble. But I cannot be more glad to be alive and with Sesshomaru-sama!_

_~~April 30th ~~_  
_Sesshomaru-sama and I entered another town at night today to loot food. Every town has a noticeboard at the entrance. The noticeboard has posters about the latest news stuck all over it. But this time, the biggest thing on the board was a huge poster with WANTED written on the top. Beneath it is a portrait of me with 'Jaken' written underneath it. My, it doesn't look one bit like me! My eyes are not that big and my mouth is not that beaky._

_"That _is_ what you look like, Jaken," Sesshomaru-sama said when I told him that._

_It also has a portrait of Sesshomaru-sama on it, even though they don't know his name. It doesn't look very like him either, although it is quite impressive that they could have included all his unique markings, considering how fast he comes and goes. The silver hair, side-parted bangs, blue moon, double magenta stripes, mokomoko, and cherry-flower patterned kimono are all very accurate._

_I wonder what we will do, now that we are, technically, criminals on the run._


	7. The Black Haired Sesshomaru

_Jaken's Diary ~~ June 2nd 1502~~_  
_It has been a long time since the last entry to my journal. The land is now bright and warm, and the long hours of daylight mean that Sesshomaru-sama and I can cover a vast distance every day. We have continuously walked North without stopping for nearly two months. Luckily, despite our status as murderous criminals on the run, Sesshomaru-sama and I have managed to never be caught or suspected. We now travel around human villages, not through them._

_~~June 7th~~_  
_Today, Sesshomaru-sama and I got our first glimpse of the capital of this big country we are in. I think the capital is called Jingcheng, or some of the people call it Beijing. It is a huge city, full of people. The city gates are colossal, although not the most sturdy I have seen. There are lots of soldiers guarding the entrance and there are continuous streams of merchants with all sorts of interesting cargo. Standing on a tall mountain, Sesshomaru-sama could see a great palace within the city. It's where that yellow-clothed emperor lives._

_~~June 8th~~_  
_Now we have to face the practical problem of getting through the city without being arrested. After all, we came here to travel and sightsee. Sesshomaru-sama is mad at me again, because I'm the cause of all this trouble. He won't talk to me._

* * *

Jaken quietly followed Sesshomaru as they walked past a wide river. The rushing river was an extravagant sight, as the water hit the hard clay on the riverbank, which had been dried by the hot sun.

A distance away, on the other side of the river, rose the tall walls of the great capital city. During the morning hours, the main entrance was continuously busy, as hundreds of people came and went.

"How are we going to get through there without being seen, Sesshomaru-sama?" Jaken asked, frowning. Sesshomaru did not answer.

At least there was nobody but them on this side of the river. Or so they thought. In the distance, walking towards them, was a very old peasant carrying a bundle of firewood. A gush of warm wind flew by, and took the old man's big straw hat. The elderly man ran after his hat with a look of desperation on his face. The hat silently fell into the rushing river, and quickly floated downstream.

The senior was dismayed and felt the beating sun upon his face. He was about to leave for shelter when he looked up and saw a hint of hope. There was someone standing beside the riverbank.

"Young man!" He cried out. The silver-haired young man turned to face him, but the old peasant seemed to not mind his hair colour, and continued, "Can you get my hat back?"

"How dare you!" Jaken screeched, approaching the wrinkled old man, "Don't order my lord around, you worthless old twit!"

"Silence, Jaken," Sesshomaru said with his usual deep, threatening voice. Then, to Jaken's surprise, Sesshomaru looked at the old man, before beautifully taking off into the air, and returning with a big straw hat.

Sesshomaru silently handed the hat back to its owner, who gave him a friendly, toothless grin.

"Thank you, young man," He croaked, "Oh, you're the one on the wanted list, eh?"

_He had a chance to live, but now he's totally dead,_ thought Jaken.

Sesshomaru stared at the defenseless old man, surprised that the peasant wasn't afraid of him, even after knowing that he was the top wanted criminal.

"I don't know why someone like you would be wanted," The old man blabbered on, "But by your actions I see that you're not a bad person. Doing evil wasn't your intention, you just wanted to save your friend. And now you're troubled because you can't go into town without being arrested."

_I guess it really is very obvious,_ Sesshomaru thought.

"Thanks for my hat, what can I do for you in return?" The friendly peasant asked.

"Hn..." Sesshomaru hissed at the old man, "I don't need anything from you."

With that, the powerful dog demon turned and started walking away, with Jaken running after him. The old man put his hat back on and sighed, crossing his arms.

"What a pity!" The cheeky old man said loudly, pretending to be talking to himself, "People can get exactly what they need easily if they would put their pride aside, if only for a moment!"

Sesshomaru stopped, infuriated. He was unfriendly and arrogant and aristocratic, but he was not stupid. He knew very well that the fearless old man was making fun of him. But even he was unable to deny that the man couldn't be more right. Sesshomaru turned around and approached the old man once again.

"So what do I have to do?" Sesshomaru questioned directly. For once his attitude made him sound more like his brother than himself.

"Ah!" The elderly peasant chirped, grabbing Sesshomaru's sleeve with one dirty hand, "Come with me, and I'll show you."

The old man's house was a simple, straw-roofed wooden cottage a third of a mile from the river. It was fairly remote with no neighbours, even though it was a short walk away from the capital city.

"Well, this is it!" The old man proudly presented his humble home as if it was made of gold, "Now, young man, I realized that the poster portrait of you doesn't actually look a whole lot like you. So, all you need to do is remove all your interesting markings and get some new clothes, and nobody will ever recognize you!"

"You have a point," Sesshomaru replied, before reluctantly entering the messy house, "But these aren't tattoos, and this isn't a scarf."

Jaken sat on a log outside the little cottage, idiotically throwing stones at a beehive. That did not end well, and Jaken was heard screaming as he fled from the army of bees chasing after him.

"Hey, little green thing! Hold onto this!" The old man's voice called out. A wrapped bundle flew out of the window, and landed precisely in Jaken's arms.

"My name is Jaken, not little green thing!" Jaken angrily yelled at the house, "And what is this?"

Jaken untied the knot on the sack and was surprised to see Sesshomaru's clothes, folded neatly and stacked in a pile. He then tossed the bundle aside and madly threw fire at the wretched bees that were stinging his head.

Not a sound came out of the house for a long, long time. Jaken was so bored that he soon fell asleep on the big log, using Sesshomaru's clothes as a pillow.

"Jaken, wake up..."

Jaken looked out, and gazed at the afternoon light, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. His vision focused on the figure standing before him. Then he rolled right off the big log and fell flat on his face. He could barely recognize the person who he had been following for many centuries.

Technically, Sesshomaru did not look very different from how he usually looked. His facial features didn't change at all, and nor did his emotionless expression. But there was one huge exception. His hair...was jet black. And on top of that, the four stripes on his cheeks and the iconic blue moon upon his forehead - and even his furry mokomoko - were gone. He wore a dark blue top with buttons, which looked ever so weird on him. Not counting his claws and his unusual eye colour, he looked exactly like a human.

"Sesshomaru...sama?" Jaken forced the words out of his mouth, staring.

For the first time in all his life, Jaken realized that Sesshomaru and Inuyasha actually looked very similar for half-brothers. Before, it was not very obvious because of Sesshomaru's unique markings, and the fact that the brothers had such different personalities.

"This is...I mean..." Jaken stammered, "How...how did you do it?"

"Ah!" The old peasant cried as he burst out of his house, "Look! I did such a good job, didn't I? I told you that you'd be amazed at what a little bit of ink and chalk can do!"

Jaken was more in shock than impressed. But then he suddenly realized a flaw in the disguise.

"Hey, old man!" Jaken piped up, "What about his ears? That's a problem!"

The old man scratched his head and stared at Sesshomaru for a moment. Jaken was right. Not a whole lot of people have pointy ears. Then, the eccentric old man had a sudden epiphany. He took off his own straw hat, and handed it to Sesshomaru.

"Now, my disguise is perfect!" The old man boasted, "Just tie up your hair, and you'll be done!"

"Don't push it..."

"Huh?" The man questioned, before he changed the topic once again, "Your little green servant. What'll I do about him?"

"My name is Jaken! Or Xiejian, whichever one you prefer," Jaken lectured the forgetful old peasant.

"Ah, I know!" The man exclaimed, utterly ignoring Jaken. He ran inside the house and produced a big backpack made of straw.

"We'll put you in here, but it's straw so you'll be able to breathe," Then, turning to Sesshomaru, the old man croaked, "Good luck, we'll meet again."

Sesshomaru was more than a little displeased about the chalk all over his face, and had already left in a huff. Jaken scrambled after his lord, holding the oversized straw backpack.

As they approached the rushing river once again, Sesshomaru stopped briefly and looked down at his own reflection. He himself could also see that he looked a lot like Inuyasha during the night of the new moon. Listening to the old man's advice, Sesshomaru tied up his hair before angrily leaving the river and walking towards the great gate of the capital city.


	8. Outta Money

The sun shone brightly over the busy marketplaces of 16th century Beijing, making the assorted variety of goods flash and glow. It was just after lunchtime, and the streets were crowded with people. Business was best for the stall-owners at this time of the day.

A huge flow of people gushed through the wide open gate and into the city. There were many soldiers standing guard at the humongous gate, but they let most familiar faces pass by without trouble.

"Sesshomaru-sama, are we there yet?" Jaken asked, his voice muffled by the bunch of clothes he was squashed up against.

"Silence, Jaken."

Sesshomaru was approaching the gate framed by tall walls, carrying the backpack given to him by the friendly old man earlier. The bag contained both his normal clothes and Jaken. The weather was very hot, as it was a summer day. Sesshomaru could feel the hair dye drying, and it smelled awful. The smell was exaggerated for him because dog-demons are superb at picking up strong scents.

The inside of the bag was dark and confined, and Jaken decided to take a nap as there was nothing to do anyway. He buried his face in the soft fabric of Sesshomaru's kimono. It made a nice bed for Jaken, especially since his lord's back felt squishy because his mokomoko was tucked underneath his clothes. Just as Jaken was drifting off, he heard a voice.

"Hey, you!" A soldier called out, "Where are you from?"

Sesshomaru looked up at the neatly dressed soldier. The soldier approached him, and repeated his question.

"I'm Cantonese," Sesshomaru lied, trying his very best to disguise his Japanese accent and fake a Cantonese one. He didn't know that this very act made him sound ridiculously suspicious.

"From the South?" The soldier questioned, looking doubtful, "What business do you have here? You don't look like a merchant."

"I'm visiting relatives who live here," Sesshomaru continued. Not being very experienced at fibbing realistically, he didn't know how long he could go on for without being busted.

"What's in that bag?" Another soldier asked, walking up to him.

"Food and clothes, what else?" Was the reply.

_That was half the truth. My clothes are in there. But Jaken isn't edible,_ Thought the dog demon in disguise.

The soldiers eyed Sesshomaru up and down suspiciously.

"We'll check your bag in the name of the government," The second soldier asked.

Before Sesshomaru could react, the soldier took off his bag and laid it on the ground. Then, he took a long spear and lifted it, about to stab the backpack.

_Jaken's in there!_

The very powerful dog demon was not used to being in desperate situations. The only other time he remembered being so horribly panicked was when Rin was kidnapped by Suikotsu and Jakotsu. Sesshomaru had one split second to think. Either save Jaken and be chased and have to kill more people, or let Jaken suffer and be exposed, and then have to run. He could think of no way to keep his identity secret while saving Jaken as well.

Then, the soldier's shiny leather belt reflected the sunlight into Sesshomaru's eye, and gave him a sudden epiphany.

The dog demon bared his claws and skillfully cut through both soldiers' belts in a jiffy, but so gently that neither of them felt it.

But soon they both realized it. Because their pants dropped to the ground.

The soldiers screeched to each other like crazy banshees and pulled their pants up, before running to find replacement belts. Sesshomaru felt his attention fly away, so he quickly took the chance. He picked up his backpack and disappeared into the crowd. Ironically, it was the dog demon's first experience of being able to mix into a crowd without being noticed.

The marketplace was completely flooded in a lake of humanity. It was packed full of people, buying and selling all sorts of weird and wonderful things. Lots of different colours, sounds and smells filled the air. One of the most memorable smells were those of the various candied fruits; they were an iconic local food of the capital city. If only Rin was there with her beloved lord, she would certainly have wanted one of the toffee apples or hawthorns.

Jaken peeked out of the backpack, stared in amazement and whispered, "Sesshomaru-sama, did you bring any money?"

"No. Did you?"

"Huh? Oh...Sesshomaru-sama, you know about my secret hoard?" Jaken mumbled as his face fell and his smile disappeared. He reached into his shirt pocket and produced a tiny coin purse, containing a few slivers of silver. He handed his savings to his lord, who gave a triumphant "Hn!".

Since Rin was five hundred miles away from them, Jaken was the one to eat a toffee apple instead. Sesshomaru handed the fruit to his servant, with warnings of dire consequences if Jaken got a single smear of syrup on his precious white kimono. Keeping clean is in fact a difficult job when you're trying to eat a toffee apple while on someone's back, though.

"Hey, hey, young man!" An annoying old woman shouted out to Sesshomaru from her booth, "I read palms for free and I'll tell you your fortune for just one bronze coin! Want to know what your future holds?"

"No thanks."

But nevertheless, the old woman ran up to Sesshomaru and grabbed his right hand without requesting his permission. Then, she gawked at his sharp claws and the purple stripes on his wrists. She couldn't read his palm very well because it was covered with old and painful-looking burn scars from wielding the Tessaiga. But the old fortune teller was determined to earn money, so she grabbed Sesshomaru's left hand instead.

His left hand looked even weirder, because it had no stripes on it. The poor fortune teller was horribly confused, not knowing anything about the traumatic history of Sesshomaru's arms. But she proceeded to read his palm anyway.

"I see!" She said dramatically, "That in the future you shall unite with your kin, stick together through thick and thin, although there will be many ups and downs, you will stick together for the greater good of the people."

_My kin?_ Thought Sesshomaru,_ Inuyasha?_

Sesshomaru felt a sudden surge of rage. He shook his hand free, unintentionally pushing the old woman. The woman fell back into her fortune telling booth and knocked over all her little gadgets and trinkets. She landed flat on her back on the dirty ground among the rubble. Sesshomaru could not care less. The woman deserved that for ruining his good mood and bringing back ghastly memories.

"Sesshomaru-sama, look at that," Jaken said as Sesshomaru walked away from the ruined fortune-telling booth. The annoyed dog demon turned around to look.

Ahead was a small shop selling all sorts of antiques and collectibles. There were numerous finely-made necklaces, clothes, decorative ornaments, toys and some odd round things. The shop was beautifully decorated, but pitifully empty. It didn't look as if the shop-owner was making much of a living. But the establishment looked quite interesting, so Sesshomaru decided that stopping by and sightseeing wouldn't do any harm.

As soon as the master and servant were inside the store, Jaken's eyes suddenly lit up and he exclaimed from the bag, "Sesshomaru-sama! That looks great! Rin would love it!"

"Huh?" The shopkeeper said, his eyes darting around the room, "Did someone say something?"

"No, you must have misheard," Sesshomaru replied, before giving his backpack a huge thump. Jaken's face crashed into Sesshomaru's spiky shoulder guard. That certainly silenced him.

Then, the mildly irritated dog demon turned to the item Jaken had pointed out earlier, and was quite surprised. On the shelf behind the shopkeeper's counter sat a delicate but fragile-looking toy. It was dusty and seemingly forgotten.

"May I see that?" Sesshomaru asked the confused shopkeeper, who was still looking around and not believing that he could have been imagining voices. After warning Sesshomaru not to break the toy, the shopkeeper laid it on the counter.

Sesshomaru examined the little thing carefully, and saw that it was a toy tiger. But it was not any ordinary stuffed animal, in that it was so finely crafted it seemed unreal. It was certainly no wonder that it was in a shop that sold ornaments. The small toy was made of real tiger skin, delicately cut and sewn with what looked like golden thread. The stripes seemed like a type of leather, and the eyes were made of marble-like beads of greenstone. Jaken was right. Rin really would love it.

"Your eye colour, how very interesting," The shopkeeper commented.

The moment he said those words, Sesshomaru nearly dropped the tiger. He was so glad that the shopkeeper didn't say, "Oh my God, you're a demon!"

The dog demon sighed in relief, and replaced the toy on the counter.

"Wow, your eyes are exactly the same colour as the tiger's fur," The shopkeeper chuckled, "This toy is one of the finest crafts in my shop, but it has also been here forever. It's about time it found a home. How would you like to buy it for your child?"

_How in the world do you know if I even have a child?_

Sesshomaru thought for a moment, then asked, "How much do you sell it for?"

"Three shekels of silver, no less," the shopkeeper replied.

_Three shekels of silver? What a ridiculous price. That would feed a man for ten days!_ Sesshomaru thought.

He dug around Jaken's little coin purse. Of course, Jaken's tiny hoard wasn't nearly enough to pay for the very expensive plush toy. But the proud dog demon was not about to just swagger out of a shop with the fact that he wasn't able to afford a stuffed animal. Besides, he knew that it would make a great gift for Rin.

"Do not sell that to anyone else," Sesshomaru instructed the shopkeeper.

"Ah, don't you worry about that, it'll be here for you," The shopkeeper said cheerfully as Sesshomaru left the shop, "Take care, see you soon!"

Sesshomaru wandered around the crowded street some more, until Jaken regained consciousness.

"Sesshomaru-sama, do you need money?" Jaken asked, "I saw this place earlier. People throw dices and win money, I think it's called gambling."

Sesshomaru thought for a moment. He might as well try, as he hardly had any money anyway. So he turned and headed for the dirty casino.


	9. Our Eternal Legacy

The casino was a place that most orderly people were keen to avoid, for it exploited the dark side of life. The building was dirty, crowded, and full of gangsters of all sorts. But it was a great place for people who believed that good fortune would always be on their side, and of course, people who were not afraid of having to live in a cardboard box.

"Alright, we're starting!" A raggedly dressed man shouted across the room, "The one to roll the largest number wins!"

Everyone pooled their coins after signing their name on a piece of yellowish paper, a document to prevent people from taking back their lost money. The ragged-clothed man was the first to roll the two dices. Enthusiastically, he put them in a wooden cup and swung the cup around in the air like a madman before tipping the two little dices onto the table. One dice read two, the other read one. This man was out of luck. Everyone at the table laughed and booed the poor fellow. The next man got three and five.

Another huge bloke came forward, and stuffed the dices into the cup with his chubby fingers. He shook the cup, and slammed it face down onto the table, before slowly starting to lift it. At this point, he took out another dice from his pocket under the table, and proceeded to swap it with the ones in the cup. But just before he could manage to win the game with his dodgy methods, he felt someone grab his filthy hand.

"You're cheating..." A deep voice said. The casino was so loud and crowded at this time of the day that nobody but the cheater actually heard it. Nobody had realized that he was cheating yet, either.

"That's just life! Let go of my hand or I'll thump your face in!" The rough man barked.

"Is that so?"

That instant, the fat brute felt sharp claws dig into his flesh. He squealed, and begged for mercy while throwing his dice out onto the wooden table. The dice read four and two. Sesshomaru let go of his dirty fat hand, and picked up the two little dices. He effortlessly tossed them both on the table. They both read five, and the dog demon left the casino with Jaken's little coin purse stuffed to bursting point.

The owner of the city's biggest antique shop sat at his counter, bored out of his mind and miserable at his poor business. But then his eyes suddenly lit up as Sesshomaru entered his store once again, and laid three shekels of silver on the counter, before grabbing the toy tiger off the shelf and leaving. He said no word to the shopkeeper, but the shopkeeper hardly minded.

It can sometimes be a real convenience to be very tall, because then you can reach things on shelves without having to ask the shopkeeper for help.

Sesshomaru and Jaken wandered around the market for the entire afternoon, looking at dozens of different shops and booths. They took the time to stock up on provisions, and stuffed the bag full of dried food. Jaken had three more candy apples, and ended up having a huge sugar rush and throwing up all over the ground. That marked the end of their shopping day. The sun was setting, and most people had gone home.

Sesshomaru entered a dark alley, and after making sure nobody else was around, he dumped Jaken on the ground. Jaken scrambled out of the backpack, coughing and gagging, before vomiting again.

"If you get any of that on my kimono," Sesshomaru said in disgust, "Then I'll kill you."

The annoyed dog demon then slowly unbuttoned his strange new top, and let out his mokomoko. His tail was all stiff from being tucked in his clothes all day long. He looked up at the stars while thinking about the interesting things he had seen during the day. Reflecting was something that Sesshomaru did all the time, especially when he had nothing better to do.

"Sesshomaru-sama, look out!" Jaken suddenly yelled. But he was too late.

An arrow flew out of absolutely nowhere and shot through the bundle of fur protruding from Sesshomaru's clothes. The arrow struck the wall in front of the dog demon with a thunk. A few dark red drops of blood splattered onto the soil beneath his feet. He turned around, more surprised than angry.

Standing on the other side of the alley was a big pack of ragged gangsters. At the very front of the gang was the great fat man who had tried to cheat at the casino earlier. He crossed his arms and grinned menacingly.

"Well, well, look what we have here!" The fatso blabbered, "I was gonna get my boys to beat you half dead, but now I think we'll do that and then take you to jail, top wanted criminal!"

"How stupid is he to carry that big scarf around with 'em?" Another thinner gangster snickered.

_How I wish this was a scarf..._

The fatso screamed at his mob, and they all picked up some mock-up weapons. One guy held a mop, and another guy a rock. The bunch of lowly brutes charged at the greatly powerful dog demon, making Sesshomaru cringe in disgust. He watched them run towards him, while not moving from the spot. Sesshomaru's extraordinary calmness struck fear in the gangsters' hearts.

A strip of greenish yellowish light danced about in the darkness. One moment later, every single gangster had become a grotesque and bloody corpse. Everyone except the fat leader, who had not charged at Sesshomaru, for he had felt the dog demon's wrath earlier that day and didn't want to feel it again. The fatso screamed at the horrifying sight and tried to run, but he was so portly that he tripped up and ended up eating dirt.

Sesshomaru approached him without a word while cracking his knuckles and thinking up a dozen different ways he could skewer the worthless man.

"Mercy, mercy!" The fatso whimpered, kneeling in front of the terrifying dog demon, "Please, spare my humble life! Do not dirty your magnificent hands!"

"I need not dirty my hands to put an end to your pathetic existence..."

The fat man looked up at the long poison whip in front of him, beads of sweat running down his face. He cowered back in fear. Sesshomaru prepared to ruthlessly slaughter the man. But just then, a few torchlights appeared in the distance. Someone yelled something, and many footsteps could be heard, running towards the alley. The fatso's life was spared.

Sesshomaru took off into the air, with Jaken holding onto his fur. Of course, he didn't forget to pick up the backpack, because he would never risk losing his elaborate costume. Far below, the patrolling soldiers could be seen approaching the fatso, who was still sprawled on the dirty ground.

"Are you okay?" The soldier asked the fatso, "Who killed all these people?!"

"The criminal with the big scarf!" The fatso stammered, "He...flew! He flew away! Like a birdy!"

"You should go to bed," Another soldier said to the fatso, "Until you are sane enough to talk."

The soldiers dragged the fatso away, while he struggled for freedom, but to no avail. His loud screams could be heard throughout the town, "Why won't you believe me?! Ahhhh!"

Jaken sighed as the warm wind blew past his face. Master and servant soared across the night sky, departing the bright lights of the capital city.

"Jaken, which way is North?"

Jaken dug out the compass from inside his brown top and pointed in the correct direction. Then, he tightly held onto his lord's wonderfully warm fur, terrified of falling down and being left behind. He accidentally squeezed the wound from the arrow. Sesshomaru groaned, and added another big bump to Jaken's head.

* * *

_Jaken's Diary ~~ June 19th 1502 ~~_  
_Sesshomaru-sama and I have been walking along the bare lands for the past few days. We actually had a chance to hire a horse-cart to ride in, but we didn't want to have people running after us and wanting to arrest us again. The brush with that fatso has made Sesshomaru-sama quite unhappy._

_~~June 20th ~~_  
_Today while walking across the shrubby lands, we saw this great, tall and immensely long wall. We heard some blabbers about it while we were in town. It's a newly built wall called "The Great Wall of China", it's to defend against some formidable foes. It really is very big, so we walked onto it to have a look. There's a lot of things I can't see at my height, even though I'm not that short._

_"Jaken, you are."_

_I got bored, so I picked up a little rock and carved words onto a big building block of the wall. I wrote: "Ja-Ken". Jaken, that's me. Then, I got even more bored, so under "Ja-Ken" I neatly scratched: "Ses-Sho-Maru". I've left our legacy here forever. Now whoever comes here will see that the magnificent lord of the west had once come upon this building. Because if you look carefully, you will find these words forever carved into stone._

**邪見  
****殺生丸**


	10. Being A Human Being

_Jaken's Diary ~~July 1st 1502~~_  
_Lately, Sesshomaru-sama and I have walked over grasslands. The climate and land here are weird. We can walk for ages and ages and see nothing but green grass. My provisions are running out again too, but Sesshomaru-sama gets annoyed whenever I bring it up. I just hope that I don't have to starve._

_~~July 3rd ~~_  
_I thought Sesshomaru-sama would wash the horrible black dye off his hair and change back into his normal clothes as soon as we left the capital city, but it seems as if he has grown accustomed to his disguise and new hair colour. He won't change back. He looks so unfamiliar. He even takes the time to cover up his duo stripes and blue moon with chalk powder. I guess Sesshomaru-sama really is determined to hide from the police and avoid killing people, which is ironic for someone who's name means "The Perfect Murderer"._

_~~July 7th ~~_  
_There's a big river, and it seems to flow North-East. We're walking along the bank of that river so we don't get lost. But I think we already are. I've absolutely no idea where in the world we are. We're somewhere up North, far from home. But that's all I know._

_~~July 10th ~~_  
_My food has completely run out. Noooooooooo!_

* * *

While Jaken stopped to rest and recover from exhaustion and starvation, Sesshomaru stood and stared at the rushing river. No matter how good he was at denying solid facts, the proud dog demon had to admit that he was lost. Ever since he hurriedly left the capital city to avoid arrest, he knew little better than Jaken where in the world they were. Infinitely large meadows of grass didn't help, and the compass was hardly useful either.

Sesshomaru was about to let his tail out of his clothes when he heard someone scream. It made Jaken jump, because there were hardly any people around the grasslands.

Caught in the currents of the rapidly rushing river was a middle-aged man. He struggled in the water, but the currents were too violent, and quickly carried him downstream.

"Help!" He cried out to Sesshomaru, "Help me!"

"Sesshomaru-sama," Jaken said, jumping at the opportunity, "You should save him! He'll give us food! He might even tell us where we are."

_He has a point,_ Sesshomaru thought.

In a jiffy, Sesshomaru had run across the riverbank after the unfortunate man. He didn't fly, although it would have been convenient, because he was dressed as a human. Without a word, the dog demon held his hand out to the middle-aged man, and pulled him out of the water.

"Great reflexes, lad!" The rescued man praised, recovering from the shock, "Thank you so much! My family name is Zhang. How can I repay you?"

Sesshomaru was about to reply, but just then Jaken started speaking for his master as always.

"Do you have any food?" Jaken asked Mr. Zhang with puppy dog eyes.

The middle-aged man stared at Jaken, and then asked Sesshomaru, "Ugh, what is that? That green thing that follows you. Is it a demon?"

"No," Sesshomaru replied, thinking on the spot, "He's a...um...an overgrown toad."

Jaken stammered unintelligibly as a reaction to being introduced as an overgrown toad.

Mr. Zhang stared in disbelief, but then said nicely, "How extraordinary. You must be tired and hungry. Will you both accept my invitation to my humble home?"

Jaken's eyes lit up, and he immediately followed Mr. Zhang down the riverbank. Sesshomaru went after him, and gave him yet another punch for nearly getting busted again.

The village was a simple farming one, and looked just as peaceful as any other in this unfamiliar land. Agriculture and domestication of animals seemed very successful here, and the villagers were not nearly as impoverished as most people were back in Japan from all the war. The Zhang family lived in an ordinary cottage, and were wealthy enough to keep many farm animals.

Mr. Zhang had a hard time introducing Jaken to his wife and children. The youngsters could obviously see that Jaken was not exactly an overgrown toad, because not a lot of toads can talk. But they seemed to not mind either way, and gladly lead him to the dinner table. Jaken received a bowl of rice with vegetables and a little bit of chicken. The green imp never had great table manners, and was so hungry that he hardly cared that he was eating like a pig. He complimented the housewife three times on her great cooking, and had four helpings. All the children giggled appreciatively at Jaken, who had rice all over his face.

"Kind young man," Mr. Zhang said, finally turning to Sesshomaru, "I haven't asked you yet. What is your name?"

"Sesshomaru..."

"Wha?" Mr. Zhang exclaimed, "Sihomawoo? What a strange name. You must not be from around here! Well then, Sihomawoo, come and join us! You must be hungry!"

The dog demon was partially annoyed by the horrid mispronunciation of his sacred name, but even more annoyed that the man was asking him to dine with them.

"I don't eat what humans eat..."

He stopped. Sesshomaru remembered that he was disguised as a human, and changed his words to, "I'm not hungry."

"Wha?" Mr. Zhang said again loudly, "Quit joking, how could you not be hungry? You've had nothing to eat all day! Come on, make yourself at home!"

The friendly peasant grabbed Sesshomaru and sat him down at the dinner table. In no time, Mr. Zhang had laid a huge bowl of hot rice in front of the dog demon, who had never eaten human food in his life. The entire family dug in, thoroughly enjoying the food. Jaken was sitting on a bench beside the table, too full to move.

Sesshomaru had had his share of difficult situations, but never had he been faced with having to act like a human and eat with other people.

"Don't you like the food?" The housewife pressed upon Sesshomaru. The dog demon had no idea how to answer. The words of the old man who had helped him dye his hair black echoed through his head.

_People can get exactly what they need easily if they would put their pride aside, if only for a moment!_

Eventually, after suspiciously poking at the steamy white rice for several minutes, Sesshomaru decided that one mouthful wouldn't kill him.

Sesshomaru picked up the pair of chopsticks, lifted a _tiny_ bit of rice, and took a _tiny_ bite, and chewed it for a _tiny_ amount of time, and swallowed as quickly as possible.

"Isn't it nice, Sesshomaru-sama?" Jaken asked with a huge grin.

"Indeed..."

Sesshomaru shot a deadly glare at Jaken, as if trying to tell him a telepathic message: _Jaken, I regret ever listening to your idiotic suggestions._

Then, as quickly as he could manage, the dog demon wolfed down his rice without touching any of the green stuff on the plate. He was a dog, after all.

"I'm glad you liked the food!" Mr. Zhang said kindly to Jaken and Sesshomaru once the meal was over.

_As if I did._

"Would you like a bath? I'll go and fetch the bathwater," Mrs. Zhang offered.

"No thanks!" Sesshomaru quickly rejected. He didn't want his hair dye to come off yet. The children ran off with their mother, eager to have a bath. Back in the day, bathwater had to be fetched one bucket at a time and heated with firewood, so people bathed less frequently than we do nowadays.

While his wife and children were off to fetch the bathwater, Mr. Zhang sat down beside Sesshomaru and Jaken and tried to make some small talk, although he was hardly successful.

"So, Sihomawoo," Mr. Zhang said, "Do you like living here?"

"It's Sesshomaru..."

"Sorry, Shewomaloo," The troubled peasant barreled on, "Your nails are really long! It must be inconvenient!"

_Actually, it serves as a weapon,_ thought the dog demon.

The kind peasant offered Sesshomaru a pair of nail clippers. It utterly freaked him out, even though he would never show it on his face. Do humans not realize that dogs don't clip their claws? Just how far was the dog demon going to go just to disguise himself as a human?

After cluelessly grinding his teeth for several minutes, Sesshomaru eventually decided that clipping his claws wouldn't render him vulnerable, because he still had Bakusaiga and his poison whip. Besides, dogs' claws grow back again after being cut.

Nevertheless, the dog demon was miserable for the rest of the evening about his short nails.

"Ah, bedtime!" Mr. Zhang passionately offered again, "Shewomaloo! You must be tired! You can sleep in the bedroom at the right side of the house."

"It's Sesshomaru. I don't sleep...I mean, I'm not tired."

"Wha?" Mr. Zhang exclaimed, "Not tired? How? You've been walking in the wild all day! Make yourself at home! Don't be shy!"

By then, Sesshomaru was more than a little annoyed at his overly dedicated host. The middle-aged peasant lead Sesshomaru to the bedroom, and left him alone from there.

The arrangement of the bedroom was weird. The bed was directly visible from the doorway. The bed itself looked unfamiliar. Sesshomaru had been used to futons placed in the middle of the floor, but this bed was big, tall, and attached to the wall. On the bed was a bamboo mattress, neatly spread over the flat surface. Sesshomaru facepalmed himself inside his mind at this ghastly sight.


	11. Leaving China Behind

Late at night, the entire Zhang family had fallen into deep slumber. That is, the whole family except the nine-year-old daughter named Chun. The little girl had been curious about just one thing throughout the entire evening.

After ascertaining that her parents were asleep, little Chun left her bed and tiptoed to the bedroom at the east side of the courtyard. There, she peered through the window, not making a sound. Then, suddenly, she gasped, before a huge appreciative smile appeared on her face.

She saw her family's honored house guest sitting on the bed, with a huge bunch of fur draping down to the ground from his right shoulder. Sesshomaru looked to the window.

"I know you're there..."

"Ah? How do you know? I'm a ghost! Aowww! Are you scared?" The playful little girl whispered from the window, before bursting into peals of laughter. Then, she entered the room with a huge smile.

"My name is Zhang Chun, and you're the top wanted criminal!" Chun said cheerfully, pointing a chubby finger at Sesshomaru. Then, to the dog demon's surprise, she laughed, "I so wanted to meet you! Ever since I saw that picture of you on the billboard, I told myself that I must touch that fluffy scarf of yours! Can I please?"

Chun climbed onto the bed and grabbed Sesshomaru's mokomoko with her little fingers. She cuddled it like a blanket, before reaching up and rubbing the chalk off Sesshomaru's forehead to reveal his iconic blue crescent moon. Sesshomaru just sat there and let her do as she pleased. It reminded him of the time when Rin climbed onto his shoulders, grabbed his lips and said, "Smile, Sesshomaru-sama!"

Just then, Chun saw the little toy tiger in Sesshomaru's backpack. She reached for it, and held it gently in her hands, before looking up into the dog demon's dark amber eyes.

"You have a child too?" Chun smiled, "What's her name?"

Sesshomaru missed a beat. In fact, his eyeballs looked like they were about to fall out of their sockets. The cold-hearted dog demon had never once in his life consciously thought of Rin as his child. But when he came to think of it, Rin was very much his adopted daughter.

"Her name is Rin," Sesshomaru replied, for once having small talk with a human being. He took back the delicate toy tiger from Chun, and replaced it in his backpack. The little girl didn't mind though, as she realized it was very fragile.

"Rin is lucky to have such a fluffy dad!" Chun commented, wrapping the furry mokomoko around herself and drifting off to sleep beside Sesshomaru. Then, as an afterthought, she whispered, "Don't worry, I won't tell my father that you're a serial killer."

For once, the cold-hearted demon did not object to having someone sleep on his fur, something that he didn't ever allow anyone to do, not even Rin. The warm weight of the child laying on his tail made Sesshomaru feel tired. So he decided that perhaps sleeping like a human being for one night wouldn't kill him.

The warm, bright morning light poured into the Zhang household, before the roosters crowed loudly. The farming family awoke to the rising sun.

"Chun is missing!" Mrs. Zhang cried to her husband, emerging from the house, "My daughter! She's gone! Chun, where are you? Chun!"

Sesshomaru opened his eyes, and looked down at the little girl sleeping beside him. He tried to pull his tail back, but she was holding onto the fur tightly. The dog demon knew that he had no choice but to wake her, despite that she was sleeping so soundly.

"Chun, wake up. Your father and mother are looking for you," Sesshomaru said gently to the sleeping girl while shaking her by her shoulders.

Chun awoke and nodded, before letting go of Sesshomaru's mokomoko. The dog demon hastily tucked his tail back into his clothes, and covered up his blue moon. Chun opened the door, and dashed outside into her mother's arms.

"Chun! How could you have gone into the guest room at night?" Mrs. Zhang scolded her daughter. Then, turning to Sesshomaru, she said, "I'm so sorry, my undisciplined daughter must have been a huge disturbance."

Before Sesshomaru could say anything to the housewife, Jaken ran out of the house carrying a huge sackful of food while shouting, "Sesshomaru-sama! I've stocked up on provisions! We're good to go!"

Sesshomaru turned to Mr. Zhang, and thanked him for the food. Ironically, it was the dog demon's first experience of actually thanking someone for hosting him. After getting some idea of their location in the huge country called China, master and servant were on the road again, heading even further North.

"Where are we going?" Jaken asked yet again, never learning his lesson. After getting no answer, Jaken repeated the question three times, and earned a smack to the head.

"We're leaving China," Sesshomaru told Jaken as he trailed off into the distance.

* * *

_Jaken's Diary ~~August 5th 1502 ~~_  
_By "We're leaving China" I thought that Sesshomaru-sama had meant that we would be going home. But his mysterious mind always has something interesting planned. Now I know that he really meant that we'd be heading further North and leaving the lands ruled by the Ming emperor. We'll be going to this place far up North that people call Mongol, or Mongolia._

_~~August 10th ~~_  
_The weather is getting a little colder, and we are probably nearing the borders of China. But I can't be sure, because Sesshomaru-sama keeps the map with him at all times. He won't let me hold it, because he says I'll muck it up. As if I would! Jaken is the most responsible servant in the world!_

_~~August 23rd ~~_  
_Today, we approached a border guarded by several soldiers. Of course, we didn't have permission to pass. But knocking out a few guards with big rocks has always been an easy task for someone as powerful as Sesshomaru-sama. For some reason, he has become softer these days. Back in the old days when I first started following him on his journeys, he would ruthlessly slaughter an army of people without blinking an eye. But now he's reluctant to hurt a fly. Rin had something to do with this dramatic change._

_~~August 31st ~~_  
_We've been walking across deserted, rocky moorlands for days now. Mongolia is so sparsely populated that we haven't come across any villages yet. We've seen a few odd horse-riders, and a few lambs, but no colonies or groups of people. _

_~~September 4th ~~_  
_These moors stretch so far and wide, and seem so lifeless. There's absolutely no water, and I've only got two bottles left. Hopefully I won't die of thirst and hunger! No! I want to follow Sesshomaru-sama!_

_~~September 11th ~~_  
_We've entered a mountainous area. The highlands are bare, and very cold. Because of this, we can't cover a very long distance each day anymore. We have to climb over rocks and cliffs. Well, I do. Sesshomaru-sama can fly, and now he is free to do so because nobody is around. Since we're not in China anymore, Sesshomaru-sama has changed back into his familiar kimono and hakama, although he keeps his Chinese clothes in our bag. He's also washed the black dye out of his hair and rubbed the chalk off his face. Now he looks normal. It's great to be out of China and not a criminal on the run anymore. We're not on the Mongolians' wanted list._

_~~September 20th ~~_  
_We're lost. We keep approaching the same places over and over again. This is so frustrating. We never had this problem at home! Traveling in a foreign land sucks._

_~~September 23rd ~~_  
_If we don't meet some people soon, then I'll starve again!_


	12. A Foretold Warrior

It was on a very cold, windy morning that Jaken and Sesshomaru got their first glimpse of life in Mongolia. Master and servant approached a clearing, on which they saw a strange-looking nomadic village. Of course, they did not know that Mongolian nomads moved around according to the seasons, because finding enough water on the bare moorlands was not an easy task.

The village itself was like none other that Sesshomaru had seen in Japan or China. Dotted around in a group were many big, white tents. They looked circular, almost like domes, except slightly taller. There were round rocks around what looked like a doused bonfire, and livestock left loose to wander. The animals included many sheep, numerous horses and a few cows. Two women dressed in large and colourful dresses were busy milking the cows under the morning light.

Everything seemed peaceful...except it wasn't. Much like in Japan, Mongolian warlords were fighting battles with each other in pursuit of land at this point in time.

Sesshomaru watched from a distance as a group of horse-riding warriors emerged from the tall grass. They had shiny armors of leather, and hats of animal skin. The dog demon looked on as they each drew out their huge swords, and broke into the peaceful village.

There was nothing to mask the cruel reality of war. As the horse-riders pillaged the village, they slaughtered every armed man with slashes from their giant knives, which soon became stained blood red. Women screamed and children cried, as the raiders set fire to all the tents and stole away the livestock, before roughly chaining their captives. The captured villagers were dragged away to serve as slaves.

Once the dust and smoke had cleared and the riders were nowhere to be seen, Sesshomaru and Jaken entered the ruined village. There was little if anything of value left. Dead bodies were sprawled across the grass, which was pooled with blood and gore. The tents had been trashed and were now nothing more than burned rubble. The village was deathly silent. Not one survivor remained.

Like old days, Sesshomaru examined the ruins carefully, before leaving the pillaged colony without a word.

"Sesshomaru-sama, where are we going?" Jaken asked, scrambling after his lord.

"We follow the riders," Sesshomaru replied, for once not completely ignoring his green servant.

The riders rode across the lonely grasslands framed by sandy dunes, dragging their chained captives behind them. The land was bare and desolate, with the cloudless sky shining above it.

The captured slaves were violently handled. Whips and canes were used to make them move faster, as they staggered along the bumpy ground.

Eventually, when the sun was at its highest, the riders entered a large camp, at the center of which was a humongous white tent. The interior of the tent was luxuriously furnished, with carpets of animal skin and a well-crafted door. It was the tent of the Khan; the Mongolian warlord.

One of the riders entered the magnificent structure and reported to his lord of their raid. The Khan was glad to hear of the success and of all the loot, and praised his men for their good work.

Out at the entrance of the camp, a few soldiers were on sentry duty when their attention was captured by a white-robed figure amis the tall grass in the distance.

"He must be an enemy spy!" One soldier shouted rudely as the group approached the calm dog demon, "Take him to the Khan!"

Sesshomaru did not understand Mongolian, which very much annoyed him. But he kept calm until the soldiers roughly tried to grab him. Sesshomaru was _not_ all talk, and he was unfortunately not kind enough to spare the lives of people who offended his lordly pride. He drew out his poison whip and sent the Mongol soldiers flying like popcorn out of a pan.

Just at that precise moment, the Khan had walked to the camp's entrance to see what the racket was all about. He arrived just in time to see a strange, silver-haired man effortlessly defeat a group of his best soldiers. The great warlord approached the dog demon while quietly clapping his hands.

Sesshomaru looked up at the Khan and instantly recognized him as the leader of the riders, because of how neatly he was dressed, and the amount of huge jewellery around both his arms. The Khan wore a large coat, a cape and cap made of animal fur, and big rings on his hands.

Another man walked up to Sesshomaru, and said politely, "I am the Khan's interpreter. Do you speak the Han dialect?"

"I guess..." The dog demon replied.

This was the first time Sesshomaru realized that during his months in China, he had learned to speak the local language very well thanks to his distant uncle. Jaken also discovered that he, too, had become bilingual as a result of their journey in the mainland.

"So sorry about the rudeness of our soldiers," The Mongol interpreter continued, "On behalf of the Khan, I would like to welcome you to our camp."

The Khan and his men lead Sesshomaru back into their camp. The dog demon was cautious as always. Even Jaken felt slightly suspicious, and kept close to his master.

"Sesshomaru-sama," Jaken whispered, grabbing the hem of his lord's pants, "I don't trust these people. Look at those huge scimitars they carry."

"Jaken...let go of my hakama..."

Jaken flinched at his lord's menacing glare and immediately did as he was told. But Jaken knew that Sesshomaru was thinking the exact same thing as he was. Why would the Mongolian Khan gladly welcome them into his camp after they had killed his soldiers? Did he have something dodgy planned?

Despite their cautiousness, the Khan invited Sesshomaru and Jaken to dine with his important officials inside his tent. The Mongolians served delicious roasted lamb with fresh vegetables. Jaken completely pigged out, not wanting to risk losing an opportunity to eat meat. After all, it wasn't every day that a traveler would get to eat food as good as this. Soon, the green imp's face was once again smeared with disgusting morsels of half-eaten food.

"Dear guest," The interpreter mumbled, sitting next to Sesshomaru, "If I may ask, what is that green thing that follows you?"

How Sesshomaru hated that question! It was the one question, of all the possible questions in the world that he absolutely did not know the answer to. In order to make the annoying interpreter go away, Sesshomaru pretended to eat his food. Sure enough, the interpreter left him to dine in peace.

But Sesshomaru had gradually gone from pretend-eating to actually eating the lamb. The dog demon who had once detested the sight of human food now found the true pleasure of eating rich, juicy roast. He was a dog, after all.

"We hope you liked the food," The interpreter said kindly once the meal was over, before lighting a candle which illumined the dark interior of the large tent.

"Yes, very much. And if I am not mistaken, it is for an important reason that you have invited me to your camp tonight," Sesshomaru replied, getting down to business.

"Indeed," The Khan explained seriously, with the interpreter repeating his every word, "Earlier, when you slew my men with uncanny speed and without any trouble, I was convinced that you may be the very warrior we have been searching for in order to accomplish a task that none other has been able to complete."

"What task could be so difficult?" Sesshomaru asked, becoming interested in the new challenge bestowed upon him.

"For many hundreds of years, there have been rumours of an unspeakable horror roaming deep in the Gobi desert," The great Khan continued, with a gravely serious tone of voice, "A terrible, horrifying beast, capable of swallowing livestock whole and corroding flesh from the bones with its venom. If one touches it, they will die instantly. The ones who have seen it have never dared to go near the Gobi desert again, saying that this creature looks like grotesquely huge cattle innards. They call it the olgoi-khorkhoi."

The interpreter was stunned, not knowing how to translate 'olgoi-khorkhoi'. He paused for a moment, before saying with a horrified expression, "It's a gigantic, blood-red demon, taking the form of a huge worm."

"So you are looking for someone who can slay this proposed beast?" Sesshomaru said, "But all you have heard are rumours. There is no proof that such a creature exists. You may be sending people on wild goose chases."

"Many foreigners have said the same," The interpreter stammered, slightly shaken by the Khan's explanation, "But only recently, two of our cattle wandered beyond the lake and didn't come back again. We found pieces of torn bones, hardly recognizable, strewn on the rock and sand. The skulls were...missing. And last month a neighbouring tribe reported to have seen a huge red beast in the moorlands. I'm not sure if you understand, but many people have _died_ because of this monster. We must kill it, to protect the people."

"The great shaman has foretold of a powerful warrior who will be able to destroy the olgoi-khorkhoi," The Khan continued, "If you are able to get rid of this beast for us, then you will receive a gift that the shaman has prepared half a century ago. It is an artifact of great value. I also own thousands of livestock of all kinds, you may take what you want."

Sesshomaru thought for a moment, before saying simply, "If this beast does exist, I will slay it."

The Khan and his officials laughed in appreciation, before inviting Sesshomaru to drink with them. The dog demon declined at first, but felt curiosity towards both the beast he was told to slay and the liquid humans drank to get high. After all, he found that human food was more awesome than he had once thought. Jaken was already drunk, so Sesshomaru decided that a sip of rice liquor might not kill him.

Being entirely inexperienced with alcohol, the dog demon couldn't stop once he had started. By the end of the night, he was so drunk that he had completely lost it, and fell asleep on the rug.


	13. Facing Your Fears

The sun rose from behind the tall, sandy dunes in the distance as Sesshomaru walked across the bare rocky lands, with Jaken desperately running after him.

"Sesshomaru-sama! Sesshomaru-sama! Wait up!" Jaken screamed at his lord, before tripping and greasing his hands on the bumpy ground. Luckily, the imp wore long pants and escaped the fate of having skinned knees.

"Jaken..." Sesshomaru growled, before squinting uncomfortably, "If I hear another peep out of your mouth, I will kill you..."

But this time, instead of pounding Jaken on the head, the impatient dog demon discretely thumped his own head. He had his first and worst hangover, and had only told his servant to shut up because he was running the risk of his head exploding at any minute.

"Sesshomaru-sama, the Khan's instructions are as follows," Jaken exclaimed, catching up with his lord and forgetting what Sesshomaru had just told him, "We walk around the big lake and through the dunes, and keep walking until we reach a dark rocky area deep in the Gobi desert. The intestine worm was sighted there. "

Jaken looked up. His lord had heard what he just said, and was already far in the distance. Jaken followed after him.

For the entire long day, master and servant walked across barren sand dunes. The sun beat harshly upon desert land, drying the ground and making the heat at noon almost unbearable. It was a great convenience that Sesshomaru wore white clothes, but Jaken suffered very much from overheating. For hours, neither of them felt anything but the sand their feet planted in, and the hot rays upon their faces. They journeyed across the waterless Gobi desert, not saying a word.

By the time the sun was setting, Jaken was panting considerably, requesting that his lord stop to rest.

Sesshomaru glanced back at his pitiful servant, before looking down at the map the Khan had given him. He thought for a moment, and told Jaken, "We cross that large sand dune. Then you may rest."

As Jaken scrambled over the dune and slid down the other side, he saw his lord standing motionlessly in front of their intended destination. Jaken could hardly believe that they had found it already.

The terrain before the dog demon was scattered with large, odd boulders. The ground was dark and ash-like, and there were no living plants or animals in sight. It certainly did not look like a great habitat, even for the most resilient flora and fauna. The place seemed so much like a cursed land that it would not have been ridiculous to suggest that it contained the lair of a deadly demon.

"We found it, Sesshomaru-sama!" Jaken wailed while staggering to a rock and sitting down to rest.

"Jaken, stay here."

Sesshomaru walked off through the cursed soil to look for the monster, while Jaken promptly fell asleep on the ground from tiredness. The cursed land was lumpy and cold, but better than sand.

When Jaken woke up again, the sun was peeking from behind the dunes at the east. The imp got up and rubbed his eyes, before finding his master standing next to him.

"Sesshomaru-sama!" Jaken exclaimed, "You were up all night? Did you find the beast?"

The dog demon emotionlessly turned and proceeded to walk away, leaving Jaken with these depressing words, "No. As I thought, this alleged beast does not exist."

As Jaken was about to sadly scurry after Sesshomaru, he noticed something on the horizon. Something huge and puffy, almost like a great orange cloud. Jaken immediately ran behind his master and grabbed onto his ballooning pants.

After giving Jaken a kick to the face, Sesshomaru muttered under his breath, "Hn...a sandstorm..."

The orange cloud of sand and dust enveloped the master and servant, surrounding the land around them. Jaken screamed and squinted, holding onto Sesshomaru's mokomoko to avoid being blown away.

But as the sandstorm blew on and on, the rubble beneath their feet was lifted to reveal a gigantic hole, leading into a dark underground tunnel. Sesshomaru narrowed his vision, because he had just found what he'd been looking for all night. The burrow of the olgoi-khorkhoi.

Immediately, the dog demon sub-consciously screwed up his nose, because he was greeted with a distant but horribly foul smell. The stench was so horrendously fetid that merely imagining what sort of creature it belonged to would raise more than a few hairs on the back.

That moment, the smell made the powerful Lord Sesshomaru face his fears for the first time in a long time.

Sense of smell was both a dog demon's greatest strength and greatest weakness. Above all other senses, dog demons are extremely sensitive to strong smells. An acute sense of smell is often an amazing feat, allowing dog demons to detect the slightest amount of a substance without being anywhere near it. But it was also the one thing that demon slayers always used to their advantage. They invented scent beads that were so strong in smell, merely being near them would cause a lesser dog demon to faint from stench overload. It was the one weakness that Sesshomaru and Inuyasha undeniably had in common.

But Sesshomaru knew at that moment that the horror he was about to face would be many times worse than a few scent beads. It made even him tremble in fear for a split second.

As the dreadful pong came ever nearer and nearer, even Jaken made an expression of disgust and backed away, despite that the imp's sense of smell wasn't the most superb. He looked up at his lord worriedly, knowing how much worse it was for him.

The dirt at the opening of the tunnel gave way, and out broke numerous terrible black tentacles. The monstrous tentacles oozed a green goo, and reeked of living hell. Slowly, the gut-wrenchingly disgusting appendages wriggled around the hole, and proceeded to crawl out onto the sand.

This repelling sight made Sesshomaru grit his teeth. The smell was killing his sanity. The tentacles were so numerous they formed a fleshy nest, and as they all emerged from their den, master and servant saw that they protruded from the body of a blood-red writhing worm.

The sheer size of the worm was petrifying. It was at least ten feet long, and thicker than a man's torso. What was more, the skin looked like a deep red, shining armor. It was certainly no wonder that nobody had been able to slay it.

Sesshomaru was not going to stick around and sightsee, especially since the stench blurred his vision and impaired his senses. In a jiffy, he had plunged his claws into the defiling red flesh.

No damage was done at all to the olgoi-khorkhoi. Why? Because Sesshomaru clipped his nails earlier, and they hadn't grown out completely yet. Never had the dog demon regretted an action so much. He jumped back, and suddenly felt a sharp stinging pain.

"Sesshomaru-sama!" Jaken screeched, "The thing! It's poisonous! Look at your hand!"

Even without Jaken's reminders, Sesshomaru had realized that the olgoi-khorkhoi's demon acid was able to physically damage him. The dog demon was slightly surprised, because he was immune to nearly all poisons, and the only demon acid known to hurt him was that of Magatsuhi. But the proud Sesshomaru wasn't the type to flee, especially not from a worm.

Ignoring the burn wounds on his hand, Sesshomaru drew out his poison whip and flogged at the overgrown worm. The beast toiled to get away, stirring up the sand around its foul body. The tiniest, oozing tentacles framed its holey mouth, which dribbled a yellow sludge. It certainly was a sight lifted directly out of a nightmare.

The dog demon felt sick to the stomach at this sight, but more so at the smell. It was beginning to make him feel faint, so he hastened his cruel flaying.

The olgoi-khorkhoi let out a grotesque howl, as if protesting against the maltreatment. Then suddenly, its black tentacles grabbed the poison whip, and with one great tug, the whip broke in half.

Sesshomaru's eyes widened at this unexpected sight. Nobody had ever snapped his whip before. Enraged, the dog demon gripped the white patterned hilt of Bakusaiga, and drew out the shiny grey katana forged from his own body.

He slashed at the red worm, as shiny green sparks flew everywhere. But the worm was far from thwarted. After the dust had cleared, the olgoi-khorkhoi was still on the sand in one piece, and clearly furious. There were a few shallow scratches on its silicate red armor, but it suffered no further damage.

"It didn't work!" Jaken yelled from a distance, "Sesshomaru-sama, should we run for our lives?"

Sesshomaru completely ignored him. He was entirely focused on staying concentrated, because the foul stench had made him very dizzy, and the acid burns hurt badly. He stared at the creature, searching for the epiphany that would tell him how to defeat it.

Sure enough, as the dog demon faced his fears and stared into the hellish patch of writhing black tentacles, he found that very epiphany he badly needed. Amis the horrid tangle of dribbling extremities was a patch of soft pink flesh, obviously the inside of its throat. The area was unarmored, and a huge blood vessel could be seen through the thin skin. It was surrounded by vicious, crawling tentacles, but otherwise entirely unprotected.

Sesshomaru knew that he had no time to lose. Narrowing his vision and locking the big vein as his target, he flew at the mess of gooey tentacles with uncanny speed and impaled the throat of the olgoi-khorkhoi with Bakusaiga.

The beast let out a gut-wrenching growl, before its sharp tentacles clawed at the dog demon, reddening the sand with the blood of both.

Jaken speechlessly watched this desperate, dishonorable and hideous fight from a distance. He looked on as his lord was roughly dragged into the underground tunnel by the mortally wounded olgoi-khorkhoi. Both demons disappeared in the darkness.

"Sesshomaru-sama!" Jaken screamed, running up to the bloody hole in the ground, "No! How could this have happened! Sesshomaru-sama! Can you hear me?"

The loyal servant continued to screech at the tunnel, but to no avail. The eerie desert was silent and lonely, and the dark, rocky earth was now more haunted than ever before. The ground before Jaken was splattered with blood, making the ashy rocks blacker than before, both literally and otherwise.


	14. To Kill A Worm

All was pitch black. The realism of life was utterly blurred. All Sesshomaru could feel was sand dragging below his feet, the hilt of his signature sword held tightly in his hand, and the agonizing pain of freshly inflicted wounds. The repugnant yowls of the olgoi-khorkhoi could be heard echoing through its underground burrow, as its life slowly waned from the sword embedded within its flesh.

Using what energy he had left, Sesshomaru withdrew his Bakusaiga from the beast's cut throat, and pulled back from the hideous tentacles that were scrabbling at his torn kimono. The dog demon continued to slide down the lightless underground passageway of sand, as if he was being pulled by an unseen force.

Then, everything fell silent. Sesshomaru opened his eyes and staggered to his feet. The environment around him was an open space, although still clearly underground. Right beside him stood what looked like a colossal pillar, holding up the sand above his head. The dog demon approached it, and brushed away a layer of sand covering the abandoned column. It was a steady one of stone, but so enclosed in dust and sand that it must have been forgotten and untouched for many, many years.

Sesshomaru saw that there were words scratched into the stone, so quickly cleared all the sand off the pillar. His vision was blurred and hazy, but he could just see that it was a poem.

**_Once the heart of the silk road,_**  
**_Catering to the west and east,_**  
**_An evil deed made it erode,_**  
**_A deed by one of the least,_**  
**_So with this curse you are bestowed:_**  
**_Be ensnared within a hideous beast,_**  
**_To forever guard this abode._**

"So _this_ is the truth," The dog demon said to himself, half amused, "The worm was a person who performed a terrible deed. His soul was cursed to be trapped inside the ugly beast, and the beast was made guard of what the wretched man once destroyed."

Sesshomaru turned around, and stared into the misty world in front of him. Shrouded in the sand and dust, but clearly distinguishable, was a long lost civilization. Buried underground were the remains of what was once a bustling town of trade. The houses, pillars, and even the wheelbarrows were lifelessly covered in dirt. A few holes on the surface let the morning light shine over the eerie ruins. It was a great discovery, but it would also sadden almost everyone to see what was once a populous colony, but is now no more than abandoned rubble.

In front of the derelict town lay the carcass of the olgoi-khorkhoi whom Sesshomaru had just slain. The fallen beast was lifeless, and its hard, silicate armor glowed red under the speck of sunlight shining from the surface.

For one moment, Sesshomaru felt happy for the soul of the unknown man who was once trapped inside the horrible monster. By slaying the beast, he had freed the poor soul from the curse. As Sesshomaru looked on, he saw a bright blue ball of light exit the body of the dead worm, and gracefully float on to the netherworld.

"Rest in peace," The dog demon sub-consciously muttered.

Jaken was still standing on the sand and screaming his lord's name into the tunnel's opening. The impish servant finally sighed, coughing from too much yelling. He stopped calling and started sobbing instead.

Suddenly, the ground beside Jaken burst open, sending big rocks flying. One rock hit Jaken square in the forehead, making him yelp in disapproval.

Sesshomaru broke out of the sand, dragging with him the body of the olgoi-khorkhoi. As he reached the surface, the dog demon dumped the slain worm upon the rocky ground, before falling to his knees, exhausted and bleeding profoundly.

"Sesshomaru-sama!" Jaken cried, running to his lord, "Are you alright? Sesshomaru-sama!"

The injured yokai was past saying anything. He kneeled unmoving, panting heavily, while his servant worriedly called out his name over and over.

Just as he was overcome by agony, Sesshomaru felt a cold tinge upon his skin. Jaken, too, felt it, and they both gazed up at the steel-coloured sky. Falling around the master and servant were pure white and otherwise beautiful flakes of snow. They were the first snow of the coming winter, and silently drifted around the lonely desert, softening the landscape to no end.

It was as if they were purposefully sent to comfort the wounded warrior, as they descended around Sesshomaru. It made him feel so at peace, just like the soothing flute music played by the one woman in all the world whom he truly loved.

A thin blanket of pure white enveloped the sand dunes, turning the barren desert into a clean snowfield.

Jaken did not know what to say to his lord, so for once remained silent, as the fallen snow was dyed scarlet by the dog demon's blood. Jaken, not able to bear looking at his lord in such pain, went instead to stare at the killed beast. Even in death, the stench was horrible. Jaken tried to warm the air using his flamethrower-staff, but without much success.

At nightfall, the large Mongolian camp was quiet. The civilians had retired into their tents to escape the cold that arrived with the first snow of the coming winter. Several guards were on sentry duty, defending the nomadic town against possible night raids. Then, unexpectedly, the guards screwed up their noses at a terrible stink.

As they stared out at the outskirts, a victorious warrior emerged from the darkness, dragging behind him a hideous, smelly beast. The guards jumped back and went pale with fear when they saw that the dead beast was none other than the eternally feared olgoi-khorkhoi. They gave way for the great dog demon, who barged past them and hauled the corpse straight to the Khan's tent.

The Khan, of course, immediately appeared from the door of his tent, and set his eyes upon the foretold warrior. Sesshomaru stood motionless beside the carcass, his blood-splattered kimono glowing under the candlelight. By then, the entire town of people had crowded around the Khan's tent to gawk at the beast that they had so feared, and the hero who had slain it. Someone clapped, and in no time the entire town was cheering at the top of their voices.

The Khan was about to welcome Sesshomaru, when the dog demon unexpectedly collapsed onto his knees in the dirt. Of course, flesh wounds and demon acid could never overcome a demon as powerful as Sesshomaru. But he who has an extremely sensitive nose had been around a beast that stank of living hell for the entire long day. Finally, the stink had pushed him over the edge. The dog demon saw the world before him blacken, and disappear.

* * *

_Jaken's Diary ~~26th September 1502~~_  
_It's late at night, and Sesshomaru-sama has still not regained consciousness. The Khan insisted on getting his weirdly-dressed doctors to treat my lord._

_I wish they knew that human medicine has no effect on him! I wish they knew that it's the intolerable smell, and not his wounds, that needs attention! And I wish they would let him be, and stop fiddling with his mokomoko! If Sesshomaru-sama was awake then they'd get it for poking his tail like that, even if they were just cleaning the blood and dirt off it._

_Jaken the great servant is so worried! Sesshomaru-sama...Oh, wait! He just woke up! I knew everything was going to be okay!_

* * *

Sesshomaru sat up on the soft rug of animal fur he had been laying upon, and looked down at his loyal green servant, who was standing beside him with puppy dog eyes. Sesshomaru was having a surprisingly fast recovery from stench overload.

"Sesshomaru-sama, are you alright?" Jaken sobbed, before blowing his nose on the rug.

"Fine..." The dog demon replied as if he hadn't just fainted. He stared at the weird Mongolian clothes he was wearing and asked his servant, "Jaken...where is my kimono?"

"Ah, the Khan insisted on washing the blood off it," Jaken stammered, half expecting his lord to get mad, "I told them not to, but they wouldn't listen to me."

Jaken turned and pointed to a pile of cleaned and neatly folded clothes laying on the floor on the other side of the room.

Just then, the Khan and his interpreter entered the tent. Both looked undeniably pleased, as they greeted the triumphant dog demon. Sesshomaru was hardly delighted though, mostly at the thought of passing out in front of a crowd of humans and then being dragged into a tent and undressed without his permission.

The Khan and the interpreter both sat down beside the rug with Jaken. After staring wordlessly at Sesshomaru for a moment, the Khan finally spoke, "You truly are the warrior the shaman foresaw. For slaying the olgoi-khorkhoi, I would like to express to you the immeasurable gratitude of myself and my people. Once you have recovered, you shall receive the shaman's gift. For now, please rest here, and if you need anything then do not hesitate to ask."

With that, the Khan left the dog demon in peace, but the interpreter stayed behind.

"The great Khan has ordered me to stay with you in case you should request anything," The by now familiar interpreter explained.

"I don't need anything..."

"Well, uh, that's okay," The interpreter mumbled at this unexpected reply, "And my lord has also asked me to tell you this. During winter, the harsh mountainous lands of Mongolia become extremely difficult to travel through. So the Khan would like to invite you to stay in our town until Spring, to express his gratitude."

Sesshomaru showed an expression of discontent to the interpreter, who backed away slightly, realizing that this warrior was not all heroicness. The dog demon got up from the rug, before ordering the interpreter to leave the tent. The unfortunate man quickly did as he was told. Once he had left, the displeased dog demon walked across the room and changed back into his normal clothes.


	15. A Winter Without You

_Jaken's Diary ~~October 1st 1502~~_  
_It has been four days since that frightful fight with the olgoi-khorkhoi, and Sesshomaru-sama is much better than he was. Apparently, today we're going to be lead to the shaman's lodge by the Mongolians to receive this so-called gift the wise guy had prepared for us fifty years ago. Well, for Sesshomaru-sama. I'm not getting a gift, even though I've worked so so hard! Jaken the great servant has a hard life._

* * *

The Khan's revered interpreter lead Sesshomaru and Jaken through the high grasslands as the sun slowly journeyed across the top of the sky.

"Oh please, please, please!" Jaken screeched, pulling on the clothes of the interpreter, "Please tell me what the gift is, I'm dying to know!"

"Haha, little toad, can't you wait a bit longer?" The interpreter replied playfully.

"My name is Jaken!" Jaken protested, "I'm not a toad!"

"Oh, right!" The interpreter exclaimed, having a decent time talking to Jaken, "I've been wondering for so long! What are you? Your lord doesn't seem to know."

"Me? I'm of a species of imp yokai," said Jaken, "Yokai are Japanese demons. Sesshomaru-sama is an Inu Yokai; a dog-demon. In fact, he's a dog demon prince."

"Wow, demons from the far East!" The interpreter gasped, "I knew that not all demons were evil. Just like the spirits we worship here in Mongolia, some demons can be sacred. So, tell me more about the land you come from, Jaken."

"Where should I begin?" Jaken blabbered, glad that someone respects him enough to care about his name and race, and also happy to have a talkative companion.

Jaken and the interpreter talked for a long time, discussing everything from their homes to the reason why gang leaders are fat. They saw each other eye to eye as they walked through the never ending patches of tall grass. Sesshomaru remained silent, and studied the environment around himself carefully.

"Woah, so let me get this straight," The interpreter wailed as the trio approached an old and dusty hut, "So you and your lord defeated this strong half-demon called Naraku, and restored peace to the land. Very heroic! Oh wait, we're here!"

The interpreter walked to the dirty door of the crumbling hut, and proudly introduced, "This is an ancient storage room!"

"I can see that," Sesshomaru replied coldly, "Would you perhaps like to say what it contains?"

"Ah, yes, very much," The interpreter continued, slightly scared by the dog demon, "Many hundreds of years ago, the great shamans of the past discovered a mine of bronze deep inside the snowy mountains."

"So?" Asked Jaken, "It's just bronze."

"It wasn't just any bronze!" The interpreter angrily shouted back, "This bronze was so very special that the shamans forged it into a great spear. According to legend, when the destined warrior touches this spear, it will be able to move and fight on its own! This spear now rests within this hut."

The interpreter pushed the moldy door, but it did not budge. He pushed harder, while mumbling, "This artifact is for you, Lord Sesshomaru...if I can get the door open..."

He gave the door a huge kick, but to no avail. Sesshomaru watched the useless man with an expression of abhorrence. After a minute of worthless struggling, the interpreter heard Sesshomaru's footsteps approaching him. The dog demon ambled past the much disliked translator, and slowly laid one finger on the mildewed old door. The door collapsed.

The inside of the hut was damp, dusty and dirty, as any uninhabited fifty-year-old hut would be. But the storage shanty was in excellent condition, considering that it had been out in the wilderness in such weather for half a century without being repaired. The interior was empty, but leaned against the distant wall was one huge, thick spear. It was so long that it touched both the floor and the roof. But it was exactly the size of the spear that made it seem like such an undesirable weapon to Sesshomaru.

The dog demon walked closer, and examined the dust-covered weapon with his acute eyes.

"A valuable artifact? Seems nothing more than worthless refuse," Sesshomaru commented at the rusty old spear before him.

The interpreter screwed up his eyebrows at the words that insulted what all his tribespeople considered to be a priceless treasure. He held his breath as Sesshomaru lifted his hand, and laid it onto the great dusty handle. Six eyes stared at the spear for a moment of suspense. The room remained silent, and absolutely nothing happened.

"It really _is_ an old piece of useless metal," Sesshomaru remarked as he effortlessly lifted the spear from where it had been leaning.

Then with no warning whatsoever, he thrust it at the wooden floorboards. The aged planks broke with a loud snap, showing that the spear was aimlessly blunt. But nevertheless, the dog demon accepted the shaman's gift. He trudged out of the hut and back through the grassland to the Mongolian camp without saying a word.

* * *

_Jaken's Diary ~~October 31st 1502~~_  
_Sesshomaru-sama and I have been residing in the Mongolian Khan's camp for over a month now. To be honest, the place is great. We always get great food to eat, although the food has gotten slightly worse with the season. I can't blame them. It's only October but it's already snowing a lot up North. At least the tents are very warm, the beds are furry and there's a nice, talkative interpreter to forever keep me entertained, although the interpreter doesn't get along well with Sesshomaru-sama._

_Speaking of Sesshomaru-sama, he has become almost silent around the Mongolians, and it never stops worrying me. The Mongols have gotten used to his quiet presence, though. But today, he's nowhere to be seen. Perhaps it has something to do with today being Rin's thirteenth birthday._

* * *

Two thousand miles away, Rin was listening to the sound of the North-Westerly wind, blowing loudly past her thick hair. The thirteen-year-old girl looked up at the lonely gray sky, and gave a whisper to the wind, "Sesshomaru-sama, stay safe. Rin will wait patiently for your return. Dear breeze, for my thirteenth birthday, please carry these words to Sesshomaru-sama."

Sesshomaru stood upon the white grassland, his magnificent figure blending into the falling snow. Not a day had gone by since he left Japan that he had not missed Rin, but this was the one day of the entire year that he missed her the most.

Rin was very much a part of Sesshomaru, a part that he valued more than his own life. He was a guardian - or perhaps even a father figure - to the dear little girl. And now he wasn't there to protect her from harm. Was Rin cold, hungry, or lonely?

Never had Sesshomaru felt so weak and powerless. Now, if Rin was in danger, he couldn't just run over to her. He sighed, and looked up at the gray sky, imagining Rin's beautiful smile amis the snowy clouds. A gush of wind blew by, and words echoed through the dog demon's mind.

_Sesshomaru-sama, stay safe. Rin will wait patiently for your return._

Sesshomaru's eyes widened as he immediately replied, "I will, Rin!"  
Then, as an afterthought, he muttered, "Happy Birthday..."

* * *

_Jaken's Diary ~~February 27th 1503~~_  
_Finally, winter has given way to spring. We have been staying in the Mongolian camp for five months, and now it's finally time to continue on our journey. Sesshomaru-sama has decided that we will be going back down South. Perhaps he wants to go home? Or maybe he doesn't want to go to even colder places. But I dunno. If we go further North, we'll get to this place called Russia._

_Sesshomaru-sama informed me only yesterday that we will be departing the Mongolian camp tomorrow. The Khan has already sorted out my food sack and put a lot of money into my coin purse._

_But the Mongolians are so nice! I don't want to leave the warm tents and go to that cold snowy mountain, but never will I abandon my dear Lord Sesshomaru. Except for that one time at Mt Hakurei, and that one time Sesshomaru-sama hit me on the head and I didn't get to leave him._

_When Sesshomaru-sama told me we'd be leaving, I really didn't want to leave the interpreter behind because he's so entertaining! So I asked Sesshomaru-sama, "Can we take him with us?"_

_And guess what? Sesshomaru-sama and the Mongolian Khan both said synchronically, "No!"_


	16. Murder Before His Eyes

A huge crowd of Mongolian nomads gathered around the entrance of their town to bid a final farewell to their heroic warrior. A sea of hands waved to the amazing dog demon, as he walked off into the high grass.

Jaken sighed, and looked back for the last time at the familiar nomadic town. Then, he dragged his long face after his master, while muttering sadly, "Goodbye, people, goodbye..."

"Jaken, wait up!"

Jaken turned around. It was the Mongolian interpreter! He came running after them.

"Are you coming with us?" Jaken screamed in delight.

"Um, no," The interpreter replied, making Jaken sulk again. Then, walking up to the master and servant, he said cheerfully, "These are for you, they're made from the armor of the olgoi-khorkhoi. After you go back to your home, don't forget Mongolia."

The friendly interpreter handed two finely-made identical amulets to Jaken. They each consisted of a blood-red, polished pendant threaded onto a shiny leather chain. The interpreter gave Jaken one last huge grin, before disappearing into the distance. Jaken let out a long, long sigh, and proceeded to put on his new amulet, before presenting his lord with the other.

Jaken felt like he needed a bit of luck, and believed that the two matching lucky charms might actually bring good fortune to both him and his beloved lord.

* * *

_Jaken's Diary~~March 2nd 1503~~_  
_Sesshomaru-sama and I have entered a desert. Apparently, it's the largest desert on the map, and it's hot and harsh and terribly filled with sandstorms. But apparently it's also the straightest path between Mongolia and our destination, which Sesshomaru-sama has yet to tell me._

_~~March 20th ~~_  
_I ran out of water today, and so I desperately begged Sesshomaru-sama for some ideas on not dying of thirst and hunger. My lord has always been smart! He cut down a cactus with his poison whip, and I filled my water bottle with cactus fruit juice._

_While I was eating the cactus fruit, I asked Sesshomaru-sama, "I thought the deathworm broke your whip, how come you still have it?"_

_He told me a long story of how he killed a poisonous porcupine demon when he was two years old, and stole the creature's demonic energy, which he harnessed and transformed into a poisonous whip._

_~~March 24th ~~_  
_Today, we passed a group of camel riders. Because we've got a lot of money at the moment, we hired two camels to ride on. I never knew that having a mount could feel so majestic!_

_~~April 2nd ~~_  
_According to the map, we're nearly out of this desert. I can't wait to depart from these horrid sandstorms!_

* * *

As Sesshomaru and Jaken reached the top of a large, grainy sand dune, they looked out into the distance and saw a huge blue river.

Jaken cried out in delight, "Sesshomaru-sama, we're out of the desert!"

Sesshomaru was already walking in the direction of the river when he heard his servant say, "My lord, look, what's that? There's something stuck in the sand."

At the bottom of the dune was a shiny object, partially embedded in the yellow sand. Jaken approached it and brushed away a layer of sand to reveal that it was a long sword, stuck into the ground. It was a haunting discovery, because the sword was a unique one belonging to a demon they knew.

"Isn't this the sword of Banban-sama?" Jaken stammered, "Your spotty uncle, Sesshomaru-sama. When'd he come here?"

Walking up to Jaken, Sesshomaru gripped the hilt and pulled the sword from the gravel it had been stuck in. As sunlight shone onto the blade, both master and servant noticed a deep crack in it, as if it had been hit by another sharp object.

Just then, a strong gust of wind blew by, sweeping away the sand beneath the large dune. As the thousands of grains of sand dissipated, a ghastly sight appeared before Sesshomaru. Previously entombed under the hot sand, but now revealed, were the partially mummified remains of an enormous dog. A dog demon, to be exact, in its true form. The lean build of the spotty-coated carcass clearly confirmed that it was none other than Banban.

Silently, Sesshomaru approached the dried flesh and bones laying lifelessly in the fine sand. The ribcage was visibly empty, showing that the death wasn't very recent. But as the dog demon studied his distant uncle's body more carefully, he made a melancholy discovery. The giant dog's head had been severed mid-neck, and the skull was nowhere to be seen. It was a clean decapitation, by a very sharp and probably heavy weapon.

Sesshomaru thought to himself, _The distance between the body and his weapon is very close. He was disarmed and immediately killed without a fight. The murderer's strength cannot be underestimated._

"This is horrible! W-w-where's his head?!" Jaken screamed in horror.

Right away, Jaken started digging in the sand around the corpse, but could find no trace of the head. The green imp shivered at the thought of how horrendous Banban's death must have been.

But what neither of them could think of was the reason why the friendly uncle was so gruesomely murdered. Both master and servant remembered him as a nice man who helped the needy; be they human or demon. Although Banban was a bit of a show-off, he did not seem like the type to go around making enemies.

Sesshomaru was annoyed by the fact that he had come too late to catch the scent of the murderer. The dog demon picked up his uncle's broken sword, and pinned it to his own belt. Then, he silently left Banban's skeletal remains to be forever buried in the sand.

Jaken ran after Sesshomaru, shouting, "Sesshomaru-sama! Will you avenge Banban-sama?"

"Do you know who the murderer is?" Sesshomaru asked coldly.

"Ugh, no," Jaken replied, before getting the message and shutting up.

The master and servant approached the very long and wide river in the distance, where they located a few boats. By then, Sesshomaru had learned that in the lives of humans, money means everything. They soon hired and boarded a big boat, and drifted Southeast. Of course, they bribed the boat owner and asked him not to tell anyone of their presence. Sesshomaru had not forgotten that he was still on the top of the wanted list.

Once in the boat, Sesshomaru reached into his old backpack and found the little bottle of black hair dye that he had somehow managed to lug around with him. Reluctantly, the dog demon took off his white kimono and dyed his hair black again. He had spent a long, long time weighing the different options, and decided that he'd rather dye his hair again than get into more trouble with humans.

Jaken stared at his lord wearing the odd blue Chinese clothes he had kept in his backpack for five months. Jaken's big yellow eyes eventually made Sesshomaru lose his temper, and he added a big bump to his annoying servant's head.


	17. The River Of Memories

As the swaying boat drifted down the river, Jaken sat in the corner, rubbing the sore bump on his head and not understanding why his lord suddenly got mad at him. Sesshomaru sat beside his annoying green servant, staring out at the riverbank. Neither master nor servant said a word, as they continued their journey Southeast.

There seemed to not be many people living along this river, but after a while, Sesshomaru caught a glimpse of a man in the distance, standing beside the river.

Sesshomaru could see through his acute eyesight that the man was pulling up a fishing net from the water. Then, the man turned around. A little child came running down the riverside towards him, shouting cheerfully, "Father, here I come, father!"

As the boy dashed across the muddy bank, he accidentally lost his footing and fell onto the ground. At the sight of this, his father immediately threw down the net in his hands and ran to his son. The child was crying, but his father gently picked him up and carried him across the damp earth, until they both reached the fishing nets. The father held his son and let the little boy look down at the fish that were swimming around in the river.

Witnessing this act of fatherly love made Sesshomaru's amber eyes glow softly under the sun, as he reminisced an unclear but eternally unforgettable memory. A vague memory, from more than half a millennium before, back when he was just an innocent little child.

* * *

Atop a lonely hill stood the noble lord who was revered and respected by all lesser demons of the west - the great Inu no Taisho. Although he was exceptionally powerful, Inu no Taisho knew that he still had much to improve on, including his most basic technique, the Wind Scar.

The great dog general drew out his prized Tessaiga and swung it elegantly, unleashing five glistening bolts of light that cut through the air much like his claws did. Then, he heard quiet footsteps approaching him, and turned around to face the little boy who had walked up the hillside. A smile appeared on his face.

"Sesshomaru! When did you get here?" Inu no Taisho called out, sheathing the Tessaiga and happily walking up to his young son.

Sesshomaru looked up at his father, and then down at the dog general's belt, before asking, "Father, can I wield the Tessaiga?"

"Practice makes perfect, Sesshomaru," Inu no Taisho explained, "When you're strong enough, both of my swords will become yours."

"I do not want that other one. All it does is make dead people come alive."

Inu no Taisho made a very dissatisfied expression, before shaking his head and smiling warmly at his son once again, "Someday you will learn to appreciate the Tenseiga. That day will be the day you surpass me and become truly great in your own rite."

Sesshomaru stared at his father for a moment, before saying naively, "Father, I challenge thee."

"What?" Inu no Taisho exclaimed, laughing a little, "Sesshomaru! You're only eight years old, it's not time for that yet. I'll accept your challenge later."

The dog general was about to turn and head home when he realized that his son was determined to fight him. Sesshomaru marched up to his father and aimed a punch to his face. Inu no Taisho blocked it with his hand.

Sesshomaru persistently kept on aiming blows at his father. Of course, the great dog general did not fight back, and precisely blocked all of his son's weak punches with his forearms or the palms of his hands. He would usually block a real enemy using his armor or his sword, but he was very careful not to hurt his son's little hands.

"Do you want to go home yet?" Inu no Taisho chuckled, backing away and blocking another tiny punch.

"I want to surpass you!"

The great dog general sighed and decided that he would stay and play-fight with his son for a bit longer, as he was slightly impressed by Sesshomaru's perseverance. Then, Sesshomaru aimed another huge punch. Inu no Taisho backed away, and the punch missed his face.

But by missing, the little boy lost his balance, fell back and tumbled down the hillside to the flat ground below, where he landed heavily on a pile of hard rocks. He groaned in pain and caught a glimpse of his father flying after him.

"Sesshomaru!" Inu no Taisho exclaimed worriedly, kneeling down on the ground beside his fallen son, "I'm so sorry, are you hurt?"

Sesshomaru looked up at his father's anxious eyes, before replying, "I'm fine..."

He certainly did not look fine. A trickle of blood fell from his hairline and disappeared into his furry mokomoko, leaving a dark stain. Inu no Taisho screwed up his eyebrows as if his son's head had been cracked open, even though it was really just a scratch. Having no spare cloth, the dog general used his maroon-coloured obi to carefully wipe the blood off his son's face.

Seeing this as an excellent opportunity, Sesshomaru aimed a punch at his father's face. But to his surprise, Inu no Taisho grabbed his little hand before it could reach his face, and held it firmly.

"Your mother used this very tactic on me when we first met," Inu no Taisho explained with a serious tone, continuing to dab soothingly at his son's forehead, "You don't fall for the same trick twice. Now, shall we go home?"

Inu no Taisho gently lifted his son from the rocky ground, before placing Sesshomaru on his back.

"Hold on tight," Inu no Taisho told his son. Then, he flew into the air and transformed into his true form.

As the great dog general soared across the blue sky, Sesshomaru clinged tightly onto his father's comfortingly fluffy mokomoko, and felt the cool breeze brush past his face.

Although Inu no Taisho was a strict father and serious lord, there was nobody in the world who loved his big boy more than he did. It took surprisingly long for Sesshomaru to truly realize that.

* * *

As Sesshomaru looked on at the fisherman with his son, he sub-consciously whispered under his breath, "Father..."

Jaken heard the single word clearly, even though Sesshomaru wasn't talking to him, because the inside of the boat cabin was so silent. Jaken looked out the window, and saw the man on the riverbank with his son on his back.

"Sesshomaru-sama," Jaken started, "Do you miss Taisho-sama?"

Sesshomaru had been in a daze, and upon hearing those unexpected words he was speechless for a moment. But once he had returned to his normal, emotionless self, he replied, "No."

Getting bored, Jaken tried to start a conversation with his lord, despite that he knew Sesshomaru was never talkative and could only hold a long, none-aggressive conversation with his parents, Bokuseno and sometimes Totosai.

"Sesshomaru-sama, when we get into town again, where do I go? There's no more room in that backpack for me," Jaken asked worriedly.

Sesshomaru thought for a moment. That was a genuine problem. Sesshomaru remembered that when he first asked Jaken to become his servant, he didn't ever imagine that more often than not the green imp would make more work than he could do.

After a while of pondering, Sesshomaru remembered that old and dirty straw hat the elderly man at Beijing had given him. He had somehow also been able to lug that around in his backpack. The dog demon fumbled around his bag, took out the hat and put it on Jaken's head.

"Jaken, you can pretend to be a child or a dwarf," Sesshomaru said coldly, "But if you cause any more trouble, this Sesshomaru will gladly kill you."

Jaken trembled in fear and decided that pretending to be a dwarf would be much more pleasant than feeling Sesshomaru's hard boots trampling his little body.


	18. Hunted By One

_Jaken's Diary ~~April 10th 1503~~_  
_I'm seasick, even though we're not on the sea. We've been on a boat, drifting South for days now. Soon, apparently, we'll get to this very populous city._

_~~April 14th~~_  
_Finally, we're leaving this horrid river! I'm going to...(Jaken stops writing and vomits all over the book)_

* * *

Sesshomaru walked within a huge crowd of people to the entrance of a large city, with Jaken scurrying after him and screaming, "Sesshomaru-sama, slow down! I'll throw up again!"

Unlike the capital city, this town was not nearly as heavily guarded, and the dog demon passed the large gate without any trouble.

Jaken looked up around the walls curiously as master and servant entered the bustling city. Then suddenly, Sesshomaru stopped and stood still, causing Jaken to run straight into him.

The dog demon sharpened his senses, because for a tiny instant, he felt a strong fiery aura close by. An aura that could only have been emitted by a very powerful being. But the presence dissipated immediately, and Sesshomaru could not locate its origin before his annoying green servant started distracting him.

"Sesshomaru-sama!" Jaken shouted above the noise, pulling on his lord's pants, "What are those two big words above the gate? Does it say 'Rakuyō'? What a strange town name."

"No, Jaken," Sesshomaru replied, "In Mandarin, the pronunciation is very peculiar. It is pronounced 'Luo-Yang'."

As master and servant walked further into the crowded streets of Luoyang, Sesshomaru convinced himself that the strange aura was not much of a threat, since it disappeared very quickly.

The paved streets were crowded with humanity, even more so than the capital city. Luoyang looked very different too; it was much warmer and contained more plants.

Along both sides of the road were various alignments of tall trees. They were peony trees, a symbolic endemic plant. Dotted across the thick bunches of leaves were very big flowers in all the colours of the rainbow. The beautiful peonies vastly brightened the loud town, making the entire place busy yet joyful.

As Sesshomaru walked through the concrete street, Jaken was so busy sightseeing that he forgot to keep quiet and avoid attracting attention.

"Sesshomaru-sama, that smells nice!" Jaken shrieked, pointing to a small restaurant, "I'm hungry, can I buy something to eat? I will be quick!"

Without another word, Jaken ran off. For once, Sesshomaru followed after his servant, his amber eyes darting cautiously around the crowd. The dog demon entered the small establishment, and sat down at a wooden table.

After a while, Jaken returned to his lord and dumped a huge plateful of steamed dumplings on the very middle of the table. The lovely smell of spiced meat wafted above the hot plate of food, and Jaken promptly dug in.

Sesshomaru was busy examining the surrounding people suspiciously when Jaken suddenly bawled with his mouth full, "Sesshomaru-sama, eat some! It's really nice!"

Jaken was a repulsive sight, his face smeared with food. He kindly held out a dumpling to Sesshomaru while grinning enthusiastically. The dog demon took the little white thing from his servant. By then, he had grown very fond of human food.

Sesshomaru was just about to start eating when he suddenly dropped the dumpling. It fell onto the dirty ground.

_That same aura again. I'm being followed. I'm sure of it,_ Thought Sesshomaru.

He narrowed his vision and blocked out all his other senses. With extreme focus, Sesshomaru examined every human being in the food shop. There was no-one who looked like they were even able to fight, save one very young woman dressed in a light pink outfit with a sheathed sword by her side.

"Sesshomaru-sama, here, have another one," Jaken mumbled, completely oblivious to his lord's cautiousness. Sesshomaru took another dumpling, but it was clear that his mind was wandering elsewhere.

Just then, the pink-clothed young woman looked at him. She paused for a moment, before walking straight up to Sesshomaru and sitting down at their table uninvited. Sesshomaru was clearly unpleased at this, and Jaken tried to shrink back and cover his green face.

"Now, before you ask me to leave," She started, while casually laying a few coins onto the table, "Your meal's on me. And you have no need to hide anything."

Jaken sat up straight, slightly embarrassed, and continued to eat disgustingly. Sesshomaru looked slightly annoyed, as the pink-clothed woman locked her eyes with his. Her eyes were large, clear and sky-blue, with a hint of seriousness within.

"If I am not mistaken, you are Sesshomaru Takahashi?" The young woman questioned.

"Precisely," The dog demon replied coldly, although slightly curious as to how she knew his name.

"I see that you dyed your hair and hid your tail, huh?" She continued, becoming more and more puzzling, "You think that being on the wanted list is what you should be concerned about? Is that brain of yours full of hay?"

"What are you trying to say?" Sesshomaru asked directly, visibly angered by her insult.

"Want to jump straight to the point? Good," The woman chuckled. Then, leaning closer to Sesshomaru and speaking in a barely audible voice, she said seriously, "Police and soldiers can't do _anything_ to you. But there is one who can. Right now, there is one who wants your head, and that one is no amateur. Do not lose your focus, lord of the west..."

With that, the young woman backed away from Sesshomaru. She gave him a huge grin and got up from the table.

"Have a nice day," She said with a light hearted tone, before suddenly looking to one side of the room.

An egg flew out of nowhere and hit the wall right beside her, spilling yolk and white all over the floorboards. Then, another one was hurled at her face. With flabbergasting skill, the pink-clothed woman caught the raw egg without putting a single crack in it. Then, she threw it back at the prankster who was hiding behind a table, giving him a very eggy face.

"Oh, by the way," She shrieked, turning back to Sesshomaru, "Beware of pranksters! There are heaps of them around here! If you're not careful, you'll get egged!"

Just then, a chopstick flew through the air, followed by a shoe. Both hit her back, and she chased the prankster out of the restaurant, screaming and cursing. She vowed to teach him a lesson that he shall never forget.

"Sesshomaru-sama, can we take that woman seriously?" Jaken asked with a dazed expression.

Sesshomaru stood up from the table, ignoring his servant's words. He silently left the restaurant, leaving Jaken to scurry after him as always. Although this time Jaken was staggering, desperately attempting to take a bundle of unfinished dumplings with him.

* * *

_Jaken's Diary ~~April 15th 1503~~_  
_We left Luoyang rather abruptly, I'll say. Sesshomaru-sama was stopping and staring at people every few minutes. At the gate we exited out of, Sesshomaru-sama said that he felt a dangerous aura. I wonder how. I mean, I feel nothing._

_~~April 18th ~~_  
_Approaching a mountain called Songshan, I got a glimpse of this really big Buddhist temple. Apparently it's called the Shaolin temple, and its very famous around here. We continue our journey Southeast._


	19. Enter The Antagonist

_**The world was born by fire. In fire we come, with fire we live, by fire we shall be consumed.**_

_**Much like fire we will glow, and decay away to ash. We leave our light and warmth behind for the great, wide world, where it shall ignite new flames of hope. From the sun we came, to the sun we will return. That is why fire forever reaches up, yearning to be home again.**_

_**Fire is just, fire is pure.**_

_**On but one day of the annum, the Sun and Moon stand perpendicular to the horizon. On this one day, the exalted Zoroastrian priest ventured to the very peak of Mt. Qunlun, and captured the essence of Sol and Luna in a legendary stone that descended from the stars themselves.**_

_**Over ten long years, the sacred stone was forged into a fearsome falchion encompassing the soul of fire itself. This divine and virtuous weapon could be paralleled by none other in all of China.**_

_**Legends long told that only one warrior in all the world was fit to wield the hallowed falchion of the Sun and Moon. That one warrior of fire was to be affined with ridding the Earth of all evil.**_

_**That warrior...is me. I am the fire. I am the one destined to conquer the world.**_

* * *

Birds chirped sweetly in the morning light as the sun shone brightly over SongShan. The weather was warm, and spring was giving way to summer. But the quietness of nature was soon broken by the screaming of the green servant whom we all know and love.

"Sesshomaru-sama! Slow down! I'm gonna drop my food!" Jaken yelled behind his lord, who was walking far too fast for him, "Where are we going anyway?"

"Jaken, Silen-"

Sesshomaru stopped, stunned. Then, the dog demon turned and walked slowly through a band of tall trees, before peering out to the other side.

Behind the plants was a bare piece of open land that was oddly grassless. What made the plain land look even more dangerous was the fact that it was directly below a vertically steep, rocky cliff about thirty feet high. The entire cliff was comprised of dark stone, much like those on the side of a volcano.

_The fiery aura, it has finally appeared again, and it is not dissipating like before,_ Sesshomaru thought.

Just as Jaken hurried to Sesshomaru's side, the dog demon said threateningly, "Show yourself…"

The fiery presence drew nearer, as the white sun reached the highest point in the sky.

Furious flames leaped from a colossal red-white falchion blade, and the scalding blade was joined to a huge steel stake via a lion's head forged from fine bronze. On the opposite end, the staff sharpened to an edge, making the weapon both sword and spear. A rough hand tightly gripped the sacred falchion of the Sun and Moon, making the blade hang above the ground, swaying and shimmering within its immensely powerful aura.

A pair of large, gleaming green eyes gazed up at the sky, soaking in the warm essence of the noon sun. Then, they fixed onto the dog demon below as the warrior of fire approached the edge of the barren cliff.

Sesshomaru shielded his eyes from the blinding sunlight reflected from the fiery orange armor covering the warrior's body. Jaken ran behind his lord's mokomoko and buried his face in the soft fur.

"This blade has killed tens of thousands of your like," A very deep, collected but threatening female voice echoed around the dark rocks. Her voice was clear and loud, even though she was not at all shouting.

Sesshomaru removed his arm from his eyes, and looked in mild amazement at the lean female warrior standing on the very edge of the tall rocky cliff. Her striking green eyes had a strangely mature depth to them, as if her mind didn't match her body. The perfectly fair skin of her face was framed by jet black hair, tied tightly in two plaited buns by dark blue ribbons – an old hairstyle that was not presently in fashion at all.

But what actually amazed the powerful dog demon was her weapon. The humongous, fiery falchion-staff looked as if it would be too heavy for three men to carry, yet she was casually holding it in one hand. Her only other visible weapon was a pair of small, sheathed daggers, one pinned to each side of her belt. Although she was human, a fiery yellow aura enveloped her, and danced wildly like an untamed animal.

After a while, she took her eyes off Sesshomaru briefly and stuck her falchion into the rocky ground, making the cliff tremble and shake. Then, she said deeply but loudly, "Any words before you meet your destined end?"

"I have no interest in fighting a human," Sesshomaru replied, before turning and heading back towards the bushes.

"No interest in me?" She said, smirking, "But look, what is this? You're leaving something behind."

Sesshomaru looked back, and his eyes widened in both surprise and fury. The firey warrior was indifferently holding a delicate and fragile-looking toy tiger in her hand. It was the toy that Sesshomaru had bought for Rin while in the capital city. He could hardly believe that it was stolen without him noticing at all.

"A souvenir? For your daughter?" She said with a hint of pride, gawking rudely at the dog demon's shocked expression, "What a pity, you'll never live to see her again."

With that, she let go of the small toy, and it fell upon the rocky ground. Then, she stepped heavily onto it, crushing the delicate little eyes and tearing the body. White cotton spilled over the grey stone.

The usually calm Sesshomaru was suddenly enraged by such a despicable insult to his capabilities. The dog demon previously had no interest in fighting a human, but now he was determined to take this insolent woman apart.

"Before you meet your end, let it be known that you are matched against Pyromancer Angel, loyal Zoroastrian disciple, the hallowed warrior of fire famed throughout China," She introduced, raising her voice, "I abhor the sight of demons, especially ones that don't even belong here!"

Sesshomaru wasn't there to talk. He sprang into the air with much grace, and flew onto the cliff's edge where Pyromancer Angel was standing nonchalantly with a mocking smirk. The dog demon drew out his glowing poison whip and flogged the hated woman before him. The whip hit her red-hot armor with a _SLAM_, and her grin widened, because it had effect on neither the person nor her clothing.

"Has a demon like you got a name?" Pyro Angel asked with her casual tone while laying her right hand onto her falchion-staff, "I don't kill the nameless."

"Sesshomaru..."

"A strange name befitting a strange fiend."

The aggressive talk was over. All of a sudden, Pyro Angel went from a smart-mouth to a warrior of action. With unbeatable speed, she withdrew her heavy falchion-staff from the stone it had been jammed in, and swung it at the dog demon's neck, aiming straight for the kill. He flew back to dodge her blow.

She was so fast that the blade barely missed Sesshomaru's eyes. He could feel the weight of the oversized weapon, as it rang like a tuning fork while being propelled by an extraordinarily strong woman. The movement of her slash was somehow familiar to Sesshomaru, even though he had never met her before.

The falchion's aura stirred up the air around it, and swiped chalk powder off the dog demon's face to reveal his iconic blue crescent moon. Pyro Angel grinned when she saw his elegant hereditary marking.

"A relative of that imprudent spotty dog?" Pyromancer Angel remarked as she leaped nimbly into the air, ready to aim another chop.

Sesshomaru's eyes looked like they were going to pop out of their sockets. That instant, time seemed to be stretched for him, as he dove deep into his thoughts and memories. Then, he found the answer he had been looking for. The reason why Pyromancer Angel's signature slash seemed so familiar was because he had witnessed its aftermath before. That one powerful slash to the neck was designed for clean decapitation.

"You killed Banban!" Sesshomaru roared at Pyro Angel, but more in disbelief than pure fury.

"So Banban was his name?" Pyromancer Angel commented emotionlessly, as she repeatedly slashed at the dog demon's face, "That inept coward scurried like a rat into the desert. He couldn't even look me in the eye when I cut off his bloody head!"

Jaken stood below the cliff, utterly petrified, as Pyromancer Angel proudly flaunted the bottom end of her falchion-staff. Looped onto it was a bracelet of dog fangs. Terrible thoughts rushed through the green imp's small mind, and he soon fainted from horror.


	20. A Challenge

Sesshomaru couldn't remember being so angry for a long, long time. It was ironic that a woman - a _human_ woman - could have insulted the powerful daiyokai, killed his uncle and destroyed his gift without being taken apart.

By then, Sesshomaru had realized that Pyromancer Angel won by pure brute strength. Her weapon was so powerfully heavy that her blows could only be dodged. Attempting to block them would probably yield fairly unsuccessful and grisly consequences.

"Good at ducking? Useless coward, just like the spotty one!" Pyro Angel yelled at Sesshomaru as she continued to slash, miss and hit the rocky ground, "Weakling! Face me like a man!"

Sesshomaru did not know how many more insults he could take in. Pyromancer Angel, on the other hand, had long known of the fine art of playing with her opponent's anger. She knew how well it worked in terms of making proud enemies willingly run into her blade.

"Lowly demon!" Pyro Angel said in Sesshomaru's face. The dog demon caught one close glimpse of her deep green eyes. Then, he suddenly realized the reason why her eyes looked so strange.

"You are much older than you look," Sesshomaru remarked coldly, dodging another sweep.

"Got some brains!" Pyro Angel replied, "I've been doing this job for over half a century, and I never get bored of it! Time is no object to the warrior of fire!"

She swung her falchion, once again attempting to decapitate Sesshomaru.

"Too scared to fight back?" Pyromancer Angel bellowed mockingly. Then, the warrior of fire leaped into the air and yelled, "Xuezhan Bafang!"

She slammed her falchion blade into the rocky ground with such force that instantly huge cracks spread throughout the grey cliff. Out sprang boiling, blood-red lava; the essence of fire from within the core of the Earth.

Sesshomaru continued to dodge her slashes and scorching lava, but by then Jaken had regained consciousness and heard some of Pyro Angel's curses.

"How dare you insult my lord, you filthy wench!" Jaken screamed from below the cliff.

Pyro Angel stopped swinging her falchion-staff for an instant, and shot a terrifying, green-eyed glare at Jaken, before laughing sarcastically.

"Filthy wench, eh?" She smirked.

Then, from beneath her scalding red breastplates, Pyro Angel drew out a tiny sharp blade with a tree peony silhouette finely engraved onto it. It was a hidden weapon - a common device used by experienced Chinese warriors of the time. With amazing accuracy, she shot it at Jaken, and it stabbed the green imp in the very middle of his chest. Jaken went silent and fell limp onto the ground.

That was the last straw. Sesshomaru blinked once, and his eyes turned red, followed by the thickening of his duo magenta stripes. The enraged and barely sane yokai blindly tore through the air, aiming his claws straight for Pyromancer Angel's neck. Little did he know that he was doing exactly what his opponent wanted him to.

"Your anger has doomed you this time," Pyro Angel whispered to herself as Sesshomaru flew at her, before snickering insolently.

During the instant he was flying towards his enemy, Sesshomaru remembered the first time he ever killed a person. He was only two years old then, but the memory was almost repeating itself. Yes, that time, he was also shaking in fury. He had been insulted, and suddenly a dramatic change overcame both his appearance and his sanity. That time, he tore out his enemy's throat. And he thought he was going to do that again, too.

But at the last moment, just before her throat was to be impaled, Pyromancer Angel thrust up her falchion blade and perfectly deflected Sesshomaru's hand. The furious yokai brushed past the warrior of fire, and landed on the cliffside behind her.

Neither of the two moved for an eerie moment. Then, out of the blue, Pyro Angel started laughing like a madwoman, as a few specks of blood rushed down her right arm and hit the ground beneath her. She turned to face her opponent, who was kneeling on the rocky ground with his back to her. Just then, Sesshomaru's eyes turned from red back to dark amber, and his sanity returned.

"Impressive, impressive," Pyro Angel said with her branded mocking voice, "Let me tell you, nobody in the world whom I have used this tactic on had been able to hurt me. How impressive! And your arm is not broken either! Proud, are you? But oh look, what's this? Looks like your pride betrayed you."

Pyromancer Angel roared with indecent laughter, before raising her other hand for the dog demon to see. In her left hand she tightly held a dagger that was now dripping with dark red blood. Sesshomaru gritted his fangs and kneeled unmoving, hardly believing that a human being's weapon could have broken through his armor. He tightly clutched the dark patch in the middle of his chest. The pain was making breathing difficult.

"Time to remove the head from the shoulders," Pyro Angel said sadistically.

She pulled up her falchion-staff from the rock, and took one step towards Sesshomaru. Then, she suddenly stopped, and looked down at the ground. She was still standing on the cliff's edge which she had badly cracked earlier with all her missed slashes. A truckload of chipping noises emerged from the broken rock, and Pyro Angel made an expression of horror.

"Oops..." She whispered.

The rock beneath her feet gave way, and she fell down from the thirty-foot high cliff. For the first time since she met Sesshomaru, Pyromancer Angel lost her calmness, and her screams could be heard clearly throughout the forest as she plummeted down to the hard ground.

"Here, pony-pony!" Pyro Angel shouted at the last instant.

Out of nowhere flew a bluish-blackish unicorn. It perfectly caught Pyromancer Angel, and lifted her into the air. Then, she fixed her eyes onto Sesshomaru again. He was standing emotionlessly on the cliff, or rather, what was left of it.

"Go, pony! Kill him!" Pyro Angel commanded.

The unicorn flew at the dog demon. But Sesshomaru had had just about enough. Just how low had he stooped to? First a human, now a _horse_?

Sesshomaru grabbed the white patterned hilt of Bakusaiga. As the unicorn approached him, he skillfully impaled its midsection in a flash of green light. The beast was killed instantly and fell to the ground beside Jaken.

"My pony!" Pyromancer Angel yelled, "You will regret this!"

Sesshomaru saw a flash of orange light, and when he looked down again, his opponent was nowhere to be seen. She had obviously fled. For a long time, the dog demon stared expressionlessly at the destroyed toy tiger sitting on the dull rock. After a while, Sesshomaru took his eyes off the little toy for once and for all.

Slowly, he descended from the destroyed cliff. As he reached the bottom, Sesshomaru glanced back at his green servant, who was laying lifelessly on the ground. Then, he turned around and left both bodies where they were.

"Sesshomaru-sama?" Jaken muttered.

The imp opened his eyes, and suddenly jumped. There was a _dead horse_ right next to him. Jaken backed away from the carcass, and squinted at the small blade embedded in his chest. He was flabbergasted at the very fact that he was still alive. How could he have survived a knife in the chest?

Jaken grabbed the blade and pulled it from his clothes. The amulet finely crafted from the olgoi-khorkhoi's red armor fell out with it. The hidden weapon had stabbed the pendant, and Jaken was completely unharmed. He had just fainted again, was all. Jaken had never been so thankful. It seemed that after all, the amulet did bless him with a bit of good luck. Then, the green imp's face fell again.

"Sesshomaru-sama!" Jaken screamed. The forest was silent, and the sun was low in the sky. The aftermath of a huge fight was clearly visible. There was broken rock and spilled blood dotted around the ground. His lord was nowhere to be seen.

"Sesshomaru-sama has abandoned me!" Jaken cried in agony, "Or he's hurt! Or he's dead! Or he's been eaten or worse!"

Jaken was so stressed out that it took a while for him to calm down, gather his thoughts, and consider the logical options. His croaky voice diminished as he trailed off into the bush, scratching his little green head and waving his flamethrower-staff around in the air.


	21. Backstabbing Pride

_Jaken's Diary ~~ April 19th 1503~~_  
_I'm looking everywhere for Sesshomaru-sama. I wonder where he could have gone after that fight with Pyromancer Angel. I hope he's alive and well. But I just can't find him. Jaken the great servant is once again so worried!_

* * *

Little did Jaken know that while he was aimlessly searching around SongShan, Sesshomaru had returned to the initial place of the fight in an attempt to catch Pyromancer Angel's scent. The daiyokai was determined to track down the wicked woman, and was very annoyed when he found that he could not recognize any scent other than that of Pyro Angel's fiery aura.

Then, Sesshomaru clenched the wound on his chest and groaned in pain. He knew that there was something peculiar about Pyromancer Angel's dagger. He could hardly believe that he had been so uncareful. The scourging gash bled and burned, and Sesshomaru realized that he was unable to close it like he could with the injuries he sustained while fighting Magatsuhi. The dog demon leaned onto the side of the cliff, gathering his thoughts and attempting to recover. But he felt hot, as if he was trapped inside a furnace of scalding flames.

The sun was setting as Sesshomaru stared out into the distance. Then, unexpectedly, he heard a shrill scream.

"What the hell are you doing?! Somebody help me!"

Sesshomaru looked up to the edge of the cliff above him. There, screaming her head off, was the pink-clothed woman who had warned him of Pyromancer Angel when he was eating in the dumpling restaurant. After one last yell for help, the young woman fell off the cliff's edge and plunged to the ground. Acting purely on instinct, Sesshomaru ran and caught the woman, saving her from becoming a fleshy pancake.

"So uncareful..." Sesshomaru muttered.

"Uncareful?!" The pink-clothed woman shouted angrily while shoving Sesshomaru aside, "That woman pushed me!"

She pointed to the cliff's edge, and Sesshomaru's eyes widened. There, standing proudly with a huge nonchalant smirk, was Pyromancer Angel. She clapped her hands in congratulatory sarcasm.

Upon seeing Pyro Angel, the pink-clothed woman was visibly terrified. She shrank back in fear and hid behind Sesshomaru, laying one hand on his furry mokomoko.

"What a kind gentleman!" Pyro Angel said loudly, "Saving the lady! Too bad your head'll be mine before nightfall!"

Then, turning around, she said cheerfully, "You have finally arrived."

A large group of men of various ages appeared on the top of the cliff. They were poorly dressed, almost like beggars. The only effects that identified them were the beating staffs they each held, the worn-out kasayas draped over their bodies, and their hairless heads. They were obviously the Buddhist monks of the Shaolin temple.

"Master abbot," Pyromancer Angel said respectfully to an old and confident looking man, "That foreign dog-demon there kidnapped that pink-clothed woman. Please aid me in destroying this abomination."

Sesshomaru screwed up his eyebrows in disgust and anger, but remained silent. He knew that even if he did try to explain, the humans probably would not believe him. But the pink-clothed woman couldn't keep quiet.

"What a lie!" She screamed at Pyromancer Angel, "You pushed me off the cliff and Sesshomaru saved me, how could you deny that?!"

"The demon bewitched the lady!" Pyro Angel said with a serious tone, "Help me put an end to this."

The pink-clothed woman was about to continue the screaming battle when Sesshomaru gave her a cold glare. She got the message and backed away, leaving only the words, "Be careful, Lord Sesshomaru."

Just as the woman disappeared into the woods, Sesshomaru felt another burning surge of heat in the knife wound inflicted by Pyromancer Angel earlier.

"Weakling! Too scared to fight me?" Pyro Angel taunted, raising her falchion-staff.

Sesshomaru had been pushed over the edge. Pyromancer Angel's very _existence_ boiled his blood, and her words further dented his pride. If he did not fight her, then his ego wouldn't exist anymore. Besides, Sesshomaru knew that defeating a few human monks was like child's play to him.

The dog demon rose elegantly into the air, and flung out his poison whip. But just as he was about to lash the life out of every human before him, Sesshomaru saw Pyromancer Angel grin menacingly out of the corner of his eye.

Then, suddenly, a surge of hellish heat flew through the knife wound on his chest. The pain was so extreme, it felt as if a thousand knives had entered his body. Sesshomaru froze in mid-air, temporarily rendered immobile.

"Now!" Pyromancer Angel roared.

"Show your true form, demon!" One confident monk yelled.

Then, all the monks thrust forward their staffs at once. A gush of purifying aura flew at Sesshomaru. Since the dog demon could not move, the aura hit him full on. The technique undoubtedly worked. Sesshomaru felt his body transform outside of his control, and in no time there was a humongous white dog before the Buddhist monks.

Some of the junior monks were terrified at the fearsome demon, but nothing scared Pyromancer Angel. She leaped into the air lightly, and before the stunned dog demon could react, he felt the bottom end of Pyro Angel's falchion-staff heavily upon his back. The great white dog fell onto the ground, the wound on his chest bleeding uncontrollably.

In his true form, Sesshomaru lacked human intellect and couldn't think of a way to escape. He looked up, and saw Pyro Angel land softly on the hard ground, before staring at him with her wide green eyes.

Pyromancer Angel approached the dog demon casually, and roughly pressed the scalding blade of her falchion on his neck. Then, she roared with mocking laughter.

"So sorry, I win," She said bitterly with unbearable cruelty, "What was your name again? Ah, I remember. Sesshomaru. Goodbye, Lord Sesshomaru."

The warrior of fire lifted her immensely heavy falchion-staff, ready to behead the giant white dog sprawled on the ground before her. Then, just as her blade was about to fall, she caught a glimpse of the pink-clothed woman standing at the edge of the bush.

"Pyromancer Angel!" The pink-clothed woman screamed, "Don't forget that you are also a mother!"

Pyro Angel gasped, and for a split-second she froze, hanging her falchion above Sesshomaru's neck. But that split-second made the difference between life and death, because as she hesitated, a pitch-black energy wave enveloped her. It was the life-saving power of the Tenseiga, heeding to its master's calls for help.

When Pyro Angel could see clearly again, the dog demon was gone. The sun had just set, and she did not own a big white dog's head. For once, the cruel warrior of fire utterly lost her temper.

"Curse you bloody coward!" She shrieked at the night sky, "You mark my words, I will claim your head! You owe me one life! Curse you to hell!"

Nightfall was an elegant and calming sight, as the sky darkened from East to West, and the bright stars showed their friendly faces. The night sky was beautifully reflected by the still water of a quiet lake. The place was lonely and silent. All that could be heard was the pitter-pattering of the fish swimming playfully in the dark lake.

Sesshomaru staggered up to the lake, and fell upon his knees before the still water. The dog demon stared pitifully at his own reflection. Never had the usually perfectly elegant Sesshomaru looked so weathered, and he knew it. Angrily, he threw a rock at his reflection. The water was stirred up, and the fish were scared away.

Sesshomaru felt rushes of burning heat stinging at the knife wound on his chest. It was as if Pyromancer Angel was remotely torturing him, and laughing at his pitiful state. But what was way worse than flesh wounds was the bitter shame of being defeated. Sesshomaru's pride had not received such a huge blow since the fight on his father's grave in which Inuyasha severed his left arm.

_How could I have lost to a human?_ He asked himself yet again. Then, Sesshomaru suddenly found the answer. The words of the old man at the capital city echoed through his head.

_People can get exactly what they need easily if they would put their pride aside, if only for a moment!_

The dog demon's eyes widened. For the first time in his life he realized that his pride, which held so much importance to him, had been used as a weapon against him. For once, he realized that Pyromancer Angel was right. His stubborn pride had betrayed him. If only he had not given in to her taunts and let himself be driven by anger, then he might not be shamed with such a terrible defeat. That moment, he reminisced all the times in the past where he had willingly run into an enemy's trap out of sheer pride.

Sesshomaru showed a bitter smile of irony, before closing his eyes and muttering, "So that is why..."

The dog demon fell silent, and collapsed onto the rocky ground. The blood on his hands was slowly washed away by the cool lake water, as the fish continued to swim around merrily within the dark pond.


	22. Chili Eating Contest

Morning light warmly greeted the elegant trees of SongShan, brightening the dire place after a day of frightening fights.

"Sesshomaru-sama! Sesshomaru-sama! Wake up!" Jaken screeched, struggling to drag up his unconscious master, who had fallen into the big lake. Jaken panted for a second, before turning back to his water-soaked lord.

"Sesshomaru-sama! Don't die!" Jaken yelled, "If you die then that horrible woman will hunt me instead! How will I get back to Japan without you? Don't die on me!"

Jaken climbed onto Sesshomaru and thumped the middle of his chest, before attempting to dry him using the fire-throwing ability of the Staff of Two Heads.

"Jaken...get off me."

Jaken felt sharp claws grab his coat-collar. The next instant, he was thrown onto hard ground. Sesshomaru opened his eyes and stood up, swaying slightly.

"Sesshomaru-sama!" Jaken screamed, "You're alive!"

Sesshomaru's eyes suddenly widened in surprise when he found that the wound on his chest had completely healed, despite that the last thing he remembered was a surge of burning pain. Then, he realized why. He had spent the entire night in a cold, still lake of fresh water.

_Pyromancer Angel is the fire, so she can be defeated only by water,_ The dog demon thought.

Then, in his usual silent manner, he turned and left the life-saving lake, walking off slowly with Jaken following behind him.

"Sesshomaru-sama, are you going to find that woman and kill her?" Jaken asked.

"No," Sesshomaru replied, smiling a little. That was so unusual for him that Jaken was immediately terrified, thinking that his lord must be mad at him again for some unknown reason.

* * *

_Jaken's diary ~~April 30th 1503~~_  
_We are traveling Southeast using the compass we've been lugging around with us for more than a year now. Everything around us seems peaceful. For some reason Sesshomaru-sama is reluctant to tell me what happened after he left me for dead that day. I ask him, "Did you win the fight?"_

_He says, "No."_

_I ask him, "How? What happened?"_

_He ignores me. Sesshomaru-sama's mind is so puzzling. I never know what he's thinking, even though I think my guesses are always right. Sesshomaru-sama is a man of pride. Once his mind is set on something, he'll stick with it, even if it gets him into a lot of trouble. Ouch! Sesshomaru-sama thumped my head when he read that. Why? I don't know!_

_~~May 3rd~~_  
_We've been away from Luoyang for a long time now, and there's no sign of Pyromancer Angel anywhere. Sesshomaru-sama says he doesn't sense her aura either. That woman has probably given up. There's no way she could ever win against someone as powerful as Sesshomaru-sama! If he lost to a human, then he wouldn't be the strongest yokai in all of Japan! Ouch! Sesshomaru-sama hit me again. I don't understand why!_

_~~May 7th ~~_  
_I guess it's better to not be hunted. I've been so used to war and being chased and called a little yokai by all those insolent humans that I've nearly forgotten what it felt like to be peaceful and free to have fun. It's such a great feeling. We're going into another town tomorrow, and I sure will have fun and spend all my money. I miss the Mongolian interpreter. *Groans*_

* * *

As master and servant trudged through the finely paved street of a medium-sized town, Jaken ran around staring at all the streetside booths like a curious child. This town was very close to lakes and water, so was beautifully decorated by a tiny man-made river that ran through one side of the concrete road.

"Sesshomaru-sama!" Jaken shrieked at his lord, "Look! Toffee apples! Can I buy one?"

Sesshomaru was still very cautious and aware, in case Pyromancer Angel was going to hunt him down again. The yokai half-heartedly slipped a coin into his servant's little green hand.

As Jaken walked down the road gawking at things and gleefully licking a toffee apple on a stick, he noticed a gigantic crowd of people gathered around one spot.

The imp pushed through the crowd to see many tables put side by side to form a very long one. Neatly lined up on one side of the table were thirty tall stools.

"Come on, everyone! It's free to enter!" A finely dressed man shouted to the crowd. Beside the man stood a HUGE cart stacked full of chilies of all shapes and sizes.

Jaken pulled on the clothes of a man standing beside him and asked, "What's this all about?"

"Oh, that chili merchant there is holding a free-to-enter chili eating contest, to boast his fame and business," The man replied, "The prize is that big bottle of chili liquor."

Jaken's face brightened, and he screamed with huge, sparkling eyes, "Alcohol!"

The green imp immediately ran to his lord's side and asked, "Please can we enter?"

Sesshomaru glanced disapprovingly at his servant, before walking through the crowd to see what the racket was all about. Hung above the table was a big sign reading: **Chili Eating Contest.**

The dog demon screwed up his eyebrows. A _chili eating contest_? Just how much of his dignity did he have left to lose? Besides, dogs can't stand spicy food. Sesshomaru knew that it was another weakness that he undeniably had in common with his much despised little half-brother.

"Our first volunteering contestant!" The merchant said above the buzzing voices, turning to Sesshomaru, who had walked too far out from the crowd.

"No, I'm not-"

"Name?" The merchant cut him off, holding a notebook and a pen.

"Sesshomaru..."

"What?" The merchant smiled, "Please say that again."

Sesshomaru lost his patience, grabbed the notepad and quickly scribbled "Ses-Sho-Maru" onto it, before dumping it back into the merchant's hands. The merchant stared closely at it, and showed a confused expression.

"Such an unusual name! The Pill of Murder?" The merchant commented.

Sesshomaru nearly fell on his back when he heard those words. His name means _what_ in Chinese? The dog demon wanted to slug the merchant in the face, but kept a cap on that desire. He was politely lead to the first stool, where he calmly sat down and focused on controlling himself. In no time, Jaken joined the contest and sat on the second chair beside his master.

"I have to win, I have to win, I have to win," Jaken mumbled again and again, shaking in excitement and staring longingly at the huge bottle of chili liquor standing in the middle of the long table.

Following the cue of the first two volunteers, many more people walked forward and joined the chili eating contest. In several minutes, the list of names was full. Thirty contestants sat side by side in front of the very long table.

After calling out the 'roll', the merchant proudly announced, "This contest will involve seven rounds. Each is composed of different kinds of chili, starting with the hardly spicy tiger-skin chili, and ending with the Indian ghost chili; the spiciest plant on Earth. Contestants have three minutes to finish each round. Last remaining contestant or first to finish seven rounds is the winner. Rules are: no spitting out the chili, no fighting and no cheating. If anybody wishes to quit, please feel free to do so and help yourself to the big buckets of cold water I have placed under the table. Let the contest...begin!"

An assistant briskly walked down the other side of the long table, and placed one small plate of big and not-very-spicy-looking chilies in front of each contestant. Then, he dramatically hit a huge gong, and slammed a turned hourglass onto the table, signaling the awaited start of the chili eating contest.

Almost all the contestants immediately grabbed the chilies and took huge bites, except for one young man, who shoved the entire plateful into his mouth at once. Jaken saw the man do that and decided to copy him. Soon enough, Jaken's plate was empty and he triumphantly tried to grin with his mouth stuffed full of chili.

Sesshomaru stared at his plate in disgust. The top half of the hourglass was half-empty. The dog demon remembered that he was dressed as a human and that nobody was really looking at him. Slowly, he picked up a big chili. Then, as if he couldn't stand the suspense any longer, he plonked the entire chili into his mouth. It was not as bad as Sesshomaru had thought earlier, and he finished just as the top half of the hourglass became empty.

"Nobody's out yet!" The merchant shouted merrily, "Round two!"

The hourglass was flipped and the gong hit, and each contestant was faced with a plate of small green chili. Round two was much more challenging, and before long, two women and a man ran from the table and poured water on their own faces.

Jaken stuffed his face full of chili again, but found that the tactic was not the most effective. Big red veins appeared on the imp's huge yellow eyes, and he looked like he might scream at any moment.

The gong sounded again after three minutes. Twenty-six contestants remained. Round three involved plates of long, thin red chilies.

Sesshomaru tried his very best to retain his usual calm attitude, but his dog senses were working up, and after eating one very spicy chili, the dog demon screwed his eyebrows. Sesshomaru blinked, and his eyes turned blood red. The merchant saw this clearly, because Sesshomaru was sitting on the far end of the long table.

"Are you alright?" The merchant asked worriedly, staring at the pair of blue-pupiled red eyes.

"Uh?"

Sesshomaru was snapped out of his daze just in time, and his eyes became normal again. If he had stayed in his frenzied state for any longer, then it is uncertain what he may have done. He was wordless for a moment, before telling the merchant plainly, "I quit."

The dog demon quietly left the table and hung back into the crowd, while watching his servant eat in agony. It was almost amusing, and Sesshomaru was curious as to who would be the winner. He only hoped that it wouldn't be Jaken, because he had not yet forgotten just how troublesome a drunk Jaken was.


	23. I Want To Be Green

The crowd was wild. Cheers and screams flew through the air, and voices were drowned by loud laughter. One by one, the contestants of the chili eating contest resigned and ran to the huge buckets of water.

The gong sounded repeatedly, as most people lost count of the round number and focused on enjoying this fun event. Round four involved imported jalapenos, followed by rounds five and six which involved various kinds of very tiny but deadly hot chilies.

Then, the gong clanged one last time. It was the start of the final round, featuring Indian ghost chilies; rumoured to be the spiciest food in all the world. Only two contestants remained. One was Jaken, the other was the face-stuffing man. It truly was the final round.

Jaken turned around from the table and shot a weary grin at his lord, with tears of spiciness running down his green cheeks. The imp nearly died of shock when he saw his lord smiling back at him.

"Sesshomaru-sama!" Jaken screamed, his face becoming a waterfall. Then, he turned back to the table and said with attitude, "Sesshomaru-sama is encouraging me! I must win!"

Sesshomaru's attempts to discourage his servant utterly backfired. Jaken's determination to win was hardened, as two plates of ghost chilies were slid onto the table. Jaken stared at the little red things placed before him. They looked almost like tiny capsicums, and certainly showed no sign of being the spiciest food on Earth.

"Let the last round...begin!" The merchant yelled.

Having no idea of what he was up against, Jaken shoved the entire plateful of chilies into his mouth, and promptly began chewing. Suddenly, he froze and sat completely still, as if he had been petrified.

A waterfall of sweat beads ran down Jaken's little face. Then, without warning whatsoever, the imp's green face started turning purple. The crowd fell silent, as Jaken's eyelids twitched uncontrollably. In no time, the previously green Jaken was completely dark purple. Slowly, he swallowed all the contents in his mouth, before an eardrum-bursting bawl of agony filled the streets.

"I give you our winner!" The merchant shouted, pulling up a shocked Jaken from the ground.

The huge crowd cheered, and Jaken's swollen face brightened up as he raised his hands triumphantly. Everyone was clapping and applauding for him! The imp had never been happier, despite that his taste buds had been practically murdered.

The only person who was not cheering, of course, was Sesshomaru. As he watched his servant receive the much yearned prize of a big bottleful of chili liquor, the frustrated dog demon made this expression: -_-"

Jaken soon staggered out of the crowd, and Sesshomaru caught up with him. Angrily, he grabbed the bottle of liquor and confiscated it from his alcoholic servant.

"No more alcohol for you."

Jaken did not dare object, and dragged his long face after his master.

"Sesshomaru-sama, this is an honorary prize for you from the merchant, as compensation for making your eyes so red," Jaken said sadly.

Jaken gave Sesshomaru something lumpy wrapped in a paper bag. The dog demon opened it and peered inside. It was just as he expected. The bag contained a bunch of dried Indian ghost chilies. What else would a _chili merchant_ have to give? Sesshomaru stuffed the paper bag into his pocket, thinking that it might be useful somehow. Then, he glanced down at Jaken and showed an expression of sheer horror.

"Jaken!" Sesshomaru exclaimed, for once actually raising his voice, "You're still purple!"

"What?" Jaken screeched.

The imp ran to the side of the paved road and stared at his reflection in the river. Sesshomaru was absolutely right. The previously green imp was completely purple, and it didn't look as if that was about to change anytime soon.

"No! Sesshomaru-sama! This is horrible!" Jaken yelled, "I want to be green! Noooooooo!"

Jaken screamed until Sesshomaru dragged him away, because people were stopping and staring at the weird little fellow who was screaming to be green.

Soon, Sesshomaru strode into a medicine shop, hauling Jaken in behind him. The dog demon marched straight up to the counter and asked the man running the store, "Do you have any medicine that makes people green?"

When he said that, Sesshomaru hardly realized that what he said was probably the most awkwardest question to ever ask someone. The man stared at him with a confused look about his face.

"Yes," He replied, before chuckling, "In your dreams!"

The man had no idea that his simple joke majorly offended the prideful dog demon before him. But Sesshomaru, of course, had decided not to hurt human beings. Slowly, he laid one hand on the counter. The counter collapsed into rubble.

Sesshomaru left the man sitting on the ground shaking in terror, and trudged out of the store.

"I want to be green! I want to be green!" Jaken yelped again and again as master and servant walked aimlessly around the street.

Throughout the entire afternoon, Sesshomaru and Jaken tried out numerous daft ideas, in a desperate attempt to make Jaken green again.

The ideas included painting Jaken's face with seaweed soup. While Jaken was busy rubbing all the excess seaweed off his still-purple face, Sesshomaru drank the remaining soup in the bowl.

Then, Sesshomaru brought up the fact that vegetables are green. Jaken had a seemingly bright idea. The imp ran to the market and bought up a huge basket of spinach, before proceeding to eat it all up raw. That did not end well, and Jaken threw up into the river.

Later, once Jaken had gotten over his nausea, he found that he was still purple. The imp exercised the idea that fresh air and exercise may help him recover from chili overload. So, as Sesshomaru sat under a tree and watched, Jaken ran around the street like a child. But soon, Jaken was panting and out of breath, and unfortunately still purple.

By then the sun was low in the sky, many shops were closed and most people had gone home.

"That spinach may have worked if you ate a little more," Sesshomaru commented to Jaken.

"No, milord! That stuff tastes horrible! But that seaweed soup and running around was so entertaining! I haven't had so much fun in ages! And..." Jaken continued, as his face clouded over, "And...I'm still purple..."

"Don't give me that look, Jaken," Sesshomaru seriously commanded his servant.

"Well, I guess that's that," Jaken sighed, "Sesshomaru-sama, lets go and get some dinner."

The master and servant located a medium-sized inn, and entered the indoor restaurant. The place was quite nice and relaxing, because the river could be seen clearly from the windows. The warm summer breeze was very soothing, and on top of that the restaurant was nearly empty. Excluding Sesshomaru and Jaken, there were two men sitting together at a table, and a mysterious-looking person, hooded and cloaked, drinking alone in one dark corner.


	24. No Time For Tea

Almost immediately after they sat at a table next to the window, a waiter approached Sesshomaru and Jaken and asked for their order.

Jaken grabbed the menu and stared at it blindly, before wearily asking his lord, "Uh, Sesshomaru-sama, I'm not good at reading kanji. What does this say?"

"You can only recognize the word 'alcohol'," Sesshomaru remarked, before taking the menu and reading it out to his purple servant.

"Oh, oh!" Jaken blurted out, "I think I'll have that boiled and spiced whole chicken thing."

"Great choice," The waiter replied, before screaming at the kitchen, "One spiced whole chicken!"

Because the business was so poor, Jaken was served almost instantly. The imp gawked at the cooked whole chicken laying in a huge plate on the table, licking his lips. Jaken's face lit up and he forgot about all his problems. The cockscomb looked delicious, so Jaken yanked at the head, but couldn't get it off.

"Ugh, a little help?" Jaken mumbled, senselessly stabbing the chicken's neck with his chopsticks.

But before master or servant had any time to say another word, a tiny blade cut through the air like a bullet and cleanly decapitated the cooked chicken, before hitting the wall beside Jaken with a thunk. The imp stared at the thin blade stuck into the wall an inch away from his body, and shuddered in horror. Finely engraved onto it was the silhouette of a tree peony in bloom.

"You are next, Sesshomaru," A familiar, deep female voice said.

The dog demon got up from his seat, and grabbed the hilt of Bakusaiga.

"So afraid of a mortal?" Pyromancer Angel questioned mockingly, while standing up from the corner table and taking off the big cloak to reveal her glistening orange armor.

She calmly picked up her shot glass and downed the liquor within. Then, all of a sudden, the warrior of fire reached under the table and drew out her falchion of the Sun and Moon. She held it fearsomely in one hand, and stared intently across the room at her opponent.

"No! No! No!" The innkeeper screamed, lunging out in front of Pyromancer Angel, "Put that falchion down! You'll break something!"

Pyro Angel looked at the man for a moment, before smiling warmly at him. She reached into her pocket and produced a small gold bar. Casually, she laid it in the innkeeper's hand as if it was no big deal, even though it was more than enough to buy the inn itself. The innkeeper was first stunned. He bit at the gold to make sure it was real.

"Heehee!" The innkeeper said with a huge grin, "Trash all you like!"

Then, he screamed like an insane banshee and fled from his own inn.

"So you do pursue your opponents," Sesshomaru commented coldly, not letting go of his sword hilt.

"No," Pyro Angel replied with her nonchalant attitude, "The brave ones I kill. The cowardly ones I hunt down and then kill. Tonight there will be no escape for you, bloody coward."

Sesshomaru felt deeply insulted, but for once he had truly learned to control his pride and anger. The dog demon felt a huge change take place inside him. Without his overly swollen pride and ego, he was able to consider a much wider range of fighting options, one of which was daft but unbelievably practical.

Suddenly, without any warning whatsoever, Sesshomaru picked up the boiled whole chicken on the plate before him and hurled it at Pyromancer Angel's face. Pyro Angel thrust forward her falchion blade and the chicken was destroyed in an explosion of meat and bones. The two remaining customers at the restaurant ran away screaming.

Once the _meat_ had cleared, Sesshomaru was nowhere to be seen. Only Jaken sat trembling at the table, with broken bits of chicken scattered around him. The sun had set, and the lamplight flickered in the dark.

"My lord! My chicken!" Jaken stammered, trembling.

Pyromancer Angel shot a disgusted glare at him, before smirking again, and scanning the large room with her keen eyes. The dark inn was eerily silent. All that could be heard was the quiet creaking of the old floorboards, and the warm wind brushing past the roof's eaves.

"Worthless coward!" Pyromancer Angel hissed, "Show yourself!"

She received no reply, but stayed calm and collected. Then, she violently knocked down the only glowing lamp, plunging the large inn into total darkness. Sesshomaru had not expected this, and realized that he was not advantaged because dogs are not cats and not superb at night vision.

In the pitch black, Pyromancer Angel could be heard as she roughly stuck her falchion into the aged planks forming the wooden floor. Then came the swooshing sound of a fire being lit. Pyromancer Angel's grin could be seen as she held a cluster of calm flames in the palm of her hand.

"The sacred blue flame," Pyromancer Angel proudly announced as she paced across the room, "A technique used by the most accomplished Pyromancers in Persia to weed out thieves in the dark. Any living thing will start glowing...ah, now!"

Jaken screamed. His pants were on fire! The imp screeched as he ran around the room, desperately attempting to put out the inferno on his backside.

"And the ones who start running will be set ablaze!" Pyro Angel roared in the dark.

Jaken stopped, and stood still in the middle of the restaurant. The imp was still glowing, but the flames on his pants had dissipated.

Sesshomaru's eyes widened in surprise. He remembered reading an ancient book about the warriors of Persia using a sacred flame to detect their opponents in the dark. He was only very young then, and he hardly believed that such a technique would actually exist, much less that he would witness it with his very eyes. Sesshomaru kept his eyes fixed on Pyromancer Angel as he, too, started to glow.

"There you are!" Pyromancer Angel said proudly.

The warrior of fire picked up her burning falchion-staff and threw it across the room at the huge vases of liquor stacked in one corner. Just as the vases were broken open, spilling high-purity liquor all over the floorboards, Sesshomaru flew out from behind them. The alcohol and fire instantly set the entire inn ablaze, as the walls and floor glowed red with the humongous flames.

"The pure warmth of fire," Pyromancer Angel whispered, her voice deepening, "So beautiful. Not a bad gravesite for a weak coward like you."

Then, she pulled her falchion-staff from the wall and swung it at the dog demon before her. Seeing no more point in hiding, Sesshomaru drew out the shiny grey blade of Bakusaiga. He artfully slashed Pyromancer Angel, and was more than shocked when she made no attempt to dodge. The bright green sparks leaped across her fiery orange armor, hitting the ground beneath her.

"You think that flimsy katana can break my blazing armor?" Pyromancer Angel yelled in Sesshomaru's face.

"F-f-flimsy?" Jaken stuttered, still sitting in the very middle of the room.

Pyromancer Angel saw the golden opportunity to strike her opponent just when Sesshomaru was attacking her with Bakusaiga. He was up close and did not have enough time to dodge when Pyro Angel swung her falchion-staff. The huge blade hit Sesshomaru square in the left shoulder, and he felt his spiky shoulder guard shatter into pieces. The dog demon jumped back and landed on the fiery ground as blood splashed onto the wooden floorboards. By then, he was more than accustomed to getting his armor smashed, since Inuyasha had done it three times before.

"Bloody coward, if it wasn't for that nice-looking shoulder guard, I'd have cut your arm off!" Pyromancer Angel roared, swinging her blade at Sesshomaru's neck.

_I won't let that happen...again,_ thought Sesshomaru.

He had not yet forgotten the inconvenience of only having one arm. Sheathing Bakusaiga and holding onto his bleeding left shoulder, Sesshomaru ascended to the second floor, because the ground floor was ablaze and falling apart. Pyro Angel followed up cursing, while Jaken promptly dashed out the door in order to avoid being roasted.

"Useless fledgling!" Pyromancer Angel shouted above the crackling flames, as she smashed the floorboards beneath Sesshomaru in an attempt to make him fall into the fire below.

Sesshomaru dodged out of the way of her heavy blow, but could not foresee that Pyro Angel possessed numerous more hidden weapons. In a fleeting instant, she flung a blade at her opponent. The tiny, peony-engraved blade cleanly cut through Sesshomaru's obi, making the Tenseiga fall into the blazing flames at the ground floor.

"Thought you were going to run away again?" Pyromancer Angel asked insultingly, "Coward!"

Although he could not retrieve his sword immediately, Sesshomaru was far from concerned, because his father's death in a housefire had proven Tenseiga to be completely fireproof. He knew that all he had to do was extinguish the fire and then find his sword.

Pyro Angel continued to slash repeatedly at Sesshomaru as the fire disintegrated the ground floor below them. Pyromancer Angel seemed to be immune to burning. In fact, her strength undeniably grew with the scorching fire.

With one last swing of her falchion-staff, Pyromancer Angel watched as the ceiling partially collapsed. Sesshomaru flew out of the flaming inferno of an inn and onto the three-storey high roof. Bursting out and facing the starry night sky, Pyro Angel once again stared her opponent straight in the eye, as they both stood motionlessly on the tall roof of the burning building.


	25. Overcoming The Fire

The stars shone brightly, although distorted by the grey smoke emerging from the burning inn. Sesshomaru and Pyromancer Angel stood unmoving, face to face, staring at each other sternly. Then, Sesshomaru laid his right hand on Bakusaiga, and Pyromancer Angel tightened her grip on the falchion of the Sun and Moon.

"Those nice white fangs might go for ten gold coins each at a weaponry merchant's," Pyro Angel commented sadistically, "Or even more, since unlike that spotty one, you are clearly purebred. Am I right?"

Sesshomaru did not answer pointless questions, so Pyro Angel smirked and raised her falchion-staff.

Then, she attempted to swing her falchion-staff, but suddenly stopped and stared in shock at her weapon. The wild white flames that had once danced prosperously on the falchion blade now waned and disappeared, making the weapon look like an ordinary one of iron. Pyromancer Angel's right arm was weighed down. She struggled with her gigantic falchion-staff, as if it had suddenly become too heavy for her to wield.

_The power of the Sun and Moon, the power of fire! It's leaving me! Why?_ She desperately thought.

Then, Pyromancer Angel glanced up at the night sky in confusion. The moon was in the very middle of the pitch black, and looked like a thin, circular ring of light. A lunar eclipse, on this night of all nights.

But Pyro Angel did not have any time to blame her horrendous luck, because during that stunned moment, Sesshomaru attacked her with lightning speed. Seeing that neither Bakusaiga nor his poison whip worked on Pyro Angel, Sesshomaru gave up on weapons and punched her in the arm. Sure enough, the most primitive attack was completely foolproof. She was easily disarmed as the heavy falchion-staff flew out of her hand and landed on the ground three storeys below with a thump.

Without hesitation, Sesshomaru bared his claws and slashed at the face of Pyromancer Angel. She slid back in order to evade his attack, and stepped onto a burnt tile. The tile cleanly broke off the roof, and the warrior of fire once again couldn't escape a falling fate.

Sesshomaru landed softly on the ground and looked at his opponent, who was leaning against the partially destroyed wall of the burning inn. Pyromancer Angel got up and returned his glare. She was not one who would easily give up. Her right arm was visibly inert, but she still had a left handed dagger, and did not hesitate to unsheathe it.

But to her surprise, Sesshomaru looked up to the roof and said, "Now, Jaken!"

Jaken was standing on the eaves directly above Pyromancer Angel holding a huge bucket, and before she could react, the warrior of fire was showered with a bucket's worth of freezing cold water. Her eyes became round with shock, horror and fury. But before she could swear on her life that she would send Jaken to hell, Sesshomaru cut across her with Bakusaiga. Green sparks leaped everywhere, and Pyro Angel smirked.

"Do you never learn? Your useless katana cannot cut my armor!" Pyromancer Angel roared, before thrusting her dagger at the dog demon before her.

"No, it cannot. But this can!"

Using the blade of Bakusaiga, Sesshomaru perfectly deflected Pyromancer Angel's hand, copying the technique that she had once successfully used on him. Then, in a jiffy, he bent her elbow back and plunged her dagger into its owner's flesh. Sure enough, Pyromancer Angel's dagger was excellent at breaking through armor, including her own. The warrior of fire cried out bitterly as her blood splashed onto the white clothing of her opponent.

Sesshomaru then shot out his sharp claws, finally aiming for the kill. But just before his claws struck Pyromancer Angel's neck, she grabbed and tightly held his hand in mid-air. She was one very strong woman, because she was able to push back the dog demon's hand.

During that moment of suspense, Sesshomaru inadvertently stared deep into Pyromancer Angel's bright green eyes. Although she said absolutely nothing, the look in her eyes seemed to be pleads for mercy. There was a sad spark within, as if she was afraid to die in vain. As if she still longed for something, something that she had not yet achieved.

_What is so important to this woman?_ Sesshomaru thought.

Then, he suddenly remembered the words of the pink-clothed woman whom he saved from Pyromancer Angel. He heard them clearly, right before the black light of the Tenseiga lifted him from the cold ground he was laying on. All of a sudden, Sesshomaru felt a surge of distastefulness, and realized that he had no desire to kill an injured old woman. Displeased, he backed away from Pyromancer Angel, and she unintentionally fell upon her knees.

"Go home to your children," Sesshomaru told her coldly, sheathing Bakusaiga and turning away.

Just as Sesshomaru was walking away from his pitifully defeated opponent, a tiny blade shot past his face. A small dot of blood ran down one side of the dog demon's cheek. It stopped him dead in his tracks, but he didn't turn back to face Pyro Angel.

"I could have killed you with that, you know," Pyromancer Angel said wearily, "But now we are even. Where are you heading next?"

Sesshomaru turned his face a fraction and replied, "Home."

"Home?" She chuckled, "I guess demons also have families to take care of."

"Where will you go?" Sesshomaru asked Pyromancer Angel.

"_I_ can't go home yet. Not until I have defeated the one demon whose head I was unable to claim," Pyromancer Angel said with a sarcastic smile, "I will return to Persia, the birthplace of Zoroastrianism. I see I still have much to learn. One day I will find you again, and that day I will certainly claim a big dog's head. Mark my words, Lord Sesshomaru."

With that, the warrior of fire staggered to her feet, barely able to stand. Sesshomaru looked back pitifully at her, but of course made no effort to help his defeated opponent. Although he had spared her life, he was not the type to forget a single insult.

Pyro Angel approached her flameless falchion-staff, and carefully picked it up. She walked to the back door of the inn that was now a burnt and blaze-filled wreckage. Then, she turned and gave Sesshomaru one last smile. This smile, unlike her previous sarcastic smirks, was a genuine one of respect...and hate. A _LOT_ of hate. As Pyromancer Angel disappeared into the waning flames, her voice could be heard echoing through the night.

_I am the fire. I am the one destined to conquer the world._

Just as Sesshomaru recovered Pyromancer Angel's tiny hidden weapon and examined it curiously, Jaken emerged from behind the ruined inn and approached his lord.

"Sesshomaru-sama!" Jaken wailed, "W-where's Pyromancer Angel? Did I miss something?"

"Jaken, silence," Sesshomaru told his servant, before looking down at him. The moment he did that, Sesshomaru nearly fell on his back. For once, the usually calm dog demon jumped and exclaimed, "Jaken! You're green again!"

"What?"

Without another word, Jaken scurried to the riverside and stared at his reflection in the clear water. Then, a cry of joy woke up every inhabitant of the peaceful town. A very strange cry of joy.

"YES! I AM GREEN!"


	26. A Metaphorical Journey

_Jaken's Diary ~~May 11th 1503~~_  
_Sesshomaru-sama and I will be returning to Fuzhou, the place we first set foot on when we came to this strange country called China. Then, we will be going home. I can't wait to go home! After all, we've been away from home for almost a year and a half now._

* * *

"Sesshomaru-sama,"Jaken squabbled as he followed after his lord, "I don't understand. Why couldn't you have rescued my alcohol from that burning inn? You found Tenseiga. Why didn't you also find the alcohol I won?"

"Jaken, if I hear another word, I will kill you."

Jaken sighed, deciding that he was out of luck this time. He walked after his master as they traveled through a large valley. Sesshomaru had never felt so free in the five hundred and something years of his life. Defeating Pyromancer Angel meant that he no longer needed to be constantly cautious of stalkers.

Their journey was looking optimistic. Both master and servant felt the warm summer breeze blow past their faces, as they traveled through Southern China. Everything seemed to be going well until the Murphy Law finally took effect. Sesshomaru heard a rumble from the mountain to his left.

"Sesshomaru-sama, what was that?" Jaken asked.

His lord stared for a moment, before narrowing his vision and replying solemnly, "A landslide. Jaken..."

Jaken shrieked in terror and immediately grabbed two handfuls of fur. Sesshomaru elegantly lifted into the air as tons of mud, rock and debris slid down the side of the mountain and into the valley.

The road they had previously walked on was now buried, leaving them with no choice other than to hike across the mountain. Atop the hill was fairly misty, and Jaken's previously bad mood further deteriorated.

Shrouded in the mist, master and servant could hear the distant but clear sound of a gushing waterfall. Following the noise of the flowing water so they could find a way out of the mountain, Sesshomaru flew briskly through the mist. Jaken unfortunately could not fly, so had to scramble across dangerous ridges.

Then, the dog demon stopped, and Jaken copied him. Sesshomaru fell silent and listened precisely to the hazy noises surrounding himself, because he noticed an unfamiliar but pleasant sound. It was the gentle music of a Chinese zither, a string instrument Sesshomaru had not previously seen or heard of. The pleasing tune intrigued Sesshomaru very much. He explored his way through the fog, and discovered that the music originated from the same place as the sound of the flowing water.

As the distorted scene became clearer, Sesshomaru was met with the grand sight of a group of elaborate waterfalls surrounding a sparkling clear pool far below. Above and beside the sharp cliff's edge sat an otherwise ordinary old man with a soft white beard. His hair was tied in a fashion that reminded Sesshomaru of familiar top knots, and his large, outdated robe worn with cloth shoes fairly matched his age. Standing before the old man was a delicate zither, which he was playing calmly.

During the half a millennium he had lived as a traveling noble, Sesshomaru remembered reading of Chinese Daoists and the way they dressed and lived.

"What brings here a foreign immortal?" The elderly Daoist asked in a collected and unflustered manner, continuing to play the beautiful melody on his fine string instrument.

Sesshomaru was stumped for an instant, surprised that the man could have known such details without even looking at him, especially since he had black hair and was dressed as a human. But he, too, kept calm.

"Travels, discovery," Sesshomaru replied coldly, before pausing and continuing, "Conquest."

The Daoist suddenly stopped playing his zither. For a moment, nothing could be heard save the loud splashing water in the background. Then, the Daoist calmly stood up and faced Sesshomaru for the first time, as he slowly advanced towards him.

"You lie," The old Daoist said light-heartedly.

The words hit a nerve, because Sesshomaru was being as honest as he ever was. Or so he thought. Just then, Jaken scrambled up to his lord, huffing and puffing to a stop.

"Why do you say that?" Sesshomaru questioned, visibly unpleased.

"Travels you may embark on the thousands of miles of the silk road. Discoveries you may find within the countless colonies of the Ming empire. Conquest you can obtain in the vast number of employments entirely within your reach," The elderly Daoist continued, "Yet what brings you here, of all places, I do wonder."

"A landslide, that's what!" Jaken screeched in complaint, "Otherwise my lord would not have entered such a horrid place!"

"What did you say?" The old Daoist's voice trailed off as he turned and returned to his zither, while calmly glancing up at the rocky cliff carpeted by the gushing waterfall.

Ignoring Jaken, Sesshomaru approached the Daoist, curious as to what the old man was looking at. The entire cliff, with the exception of a tiny area, was clouded by the grey mist. Clearly visible through the small fogless patch was a frail-looking tree protruding horizontally from the side of the steep cliff. Standing out on the thinnest branch was one single bright red fruit about the size of a large orange.

The Daoist continued to play his peaceful song, as Sesshomaru sharpened his vision and carefully examined the distant fruit.

"If it is pleasing to your eye," The Daoist continued, speaking in perfect sync with his melodic music, "I ask that you procure it for me."

Sesshomaru looked thoughtfully at the Daoist, who said nothing more. The proud dog demon would usually be furious at being ordered around without as much as a please, but the Daoist worded his speech in such a way that Sesshomaru was not offended in the slightest. The dog demon handsomely ascended into the thick mist, with Jaken running after him.

Surrounded by a void of dark grey, Sesshomaru locked his acute eyes on the bright fruit and neglected all else. Jaken stood below and watched as his lord disappeared into the cloud of fog.

"The goal is clear, but the path is a mystery," The Daoist spoke through his music.

Sesshomaru kept his gaze on the fruit as he flew through the mist, listening to the Daoist's words and Jaken's complaints about no longer being able to see his lord.

"Countless obstacles stand in the way, and remain unseen until they are reached," The Daoist continued.

Sesshomaru had not yet understood the full metaphorical value of the seemingly simple task set before him when a large rock loomed from the mist. If he had reacted a jiffy later, the dog demon might as well have crashed into it face first. Now more cautious than before, Sesshomaru weaved through the grey fog slowly and steadily, brushing past numerous more rocks and ridges.

"The journey is more perilous and much longer than expected," The Daoist explained, "Obstacles trigger growth, as unwillingness becomes determination and flaw becomes strength."

Jaken wondered through the mist, calling out his lord's name over and over again. Sesshomaru did not previously think that obtaining a fruit from a tree could be so aggravating. It had taken him at least ten minutes already, and he was still not very close to that one lone tree.

"But if the mind is set, if dedication prevails, then the goal is ultimately within reach. Insight gained on the path to achievement may be surprising," The elderly Daoist finished off. He spoke no more, and focused on his soothing string music.

And finally, after swiping across one last sharp rock, Sesshomaru closed his fingers over the round fruit and pulled it from the branch it had grown on. Then, as he carefully darted through the mist and descended back down, the dog demon found insight and foresight that was truly out of the ordinary.

It started as a barely intelligible sound - a voice. A deep echo, as if it was coming from inside himself rather than being an external force. The commanding voice was familiar, yet barely recognizable. In the soft grey of the mist, Sesshomaru convinced himself that he saw a few hazy shadows appear and vanish. He could distinguish the distorted silhouettes of three children, two girls and a boy, looking longingly at him.

Then, just as he was getting accustomed to the strange visions offered by the mysterious place, Sesshomaru saw out of the corner of his eyes a vivid image of several sharp claws. The blurred but glistening claws shot at him in a near unavoidable fashion, as if he himself were willingly standing in their way. He clearly saw the set of sharp claws close in on him, followed by a flash of red.

This confusing and haunting vision left Sesshomaru puzzled and dazed for a moment. He could not compute what it meant. Even though Sesshomaru would likely deny it, everyone feels fear and he was hardly an exception. The all-powerful Lord Sesshomaru was in fact afraid of numerous things, such as death, humiliation, and Inuyasha. The latter only applies when said hanyou is in his insane full yokai state.

During the instant Sesshomaru spent in a confused daze, he was not paying attention to where he was heading. From out of nowhere, a rock broke through the fog and Sesshomaru flew straight into it. Jaken heard a thump, before his lord landed on the ground in front of the old Daoist.

Sesshomaru set his eyes upon the man once again, and handed him the fruit. The Daoist smiled contently.

"It's a nice fruit, isn't it?" The Daoist smiled, before looking seriously into the dog demon's amber eyes, "I got my fruit. Did you get yours?"

Sesshomaru fell silent, knowing very well what the wise old man meant, and knowing that he need not answer. But Jaken, whose wit was five times the thickness of his master's, got absolutely nothing.

"What? You mean you got your fruit, and he got his fruit," Jaken blabbered, "Then what about my fruit?"

The old Daoist chuckled appreciatively, before tossing the bright red fruit at Jaken. The green imp caught it, hardly understanding a thing. As Jaken wolfed it down, the old Daoist departed from his zither and slowly wandered towards the waterfall, disappearing into the mist.

As Sesshomaru looked on in his usual collected fashion, a strong gush of warm wind blew across the mountains. Almost immediately, the thick fog was swept away, revealing the true beauty of the tranquil landscape of Southern China. The Daoist was nowhere to be seen, almost as if he was never truly material. Bright sunlight shone over the extravagant waterfalls, complimenting the exceptional scenery.

Since the mist had now cleared, Sesshomaru could see the path down the mountain, and promptly continued his journey with his green servant scurrying after him.

* * *

_Jaken's Diary~~May 12th 1503~~_  
_That fruit the old Daoist gave me must have had some sort of magical power, because once I ate it my demonic aura became greater. Then, I found that I could fly! It was amazing, not having to scramble across the ground and being able to fly behind Sesshomaru-sama!_

_What wouldn't I have given to know that the effects were temporary?! Halfway down the mountain, my flying ability wore off and I landed face first on the ground. Jaken the great servant has such a hard life._

_~~May 13th~~_  
_I asked Sesshomaru-sama if he saw anything peculiar when he was shrouded in the mist while trying to obtain the magical fruit. He replied, "Nothing."_

_Sesshomaru-sama might not have had any strange visions, but I sure did. I saw a door open, and inside was full of glistening gold! Oh my, oh my! Could this be a vision of my future? Yes! I knew it! I'm going to be rich someday!_


	27. Back At The Beginning

_Jaken's Diary~~ May 19th 1503~~_  
_Crossing the mountains is not easy, but it's so great that Sesshomaru-sama is very accurate at pinpointing locations. Because today we passed a familiar sight. That mountain where we first met Banban-sama. Last time we came here, the mountain was completely lifeless because of that gigantic spider. Sesshomaru-sama had killed the spider over a year ago, and now, a year later, the mountain is bustling with life just like the ones around it. It's a pity Banban-sama didn't live to see all this. I hope his clan is okay. I heard that some of them got killed by Pyromancer Angel, but I do hope that nice girl I met is alive and well._

_We're on our way back to the beginning. Well, literally, not figuratively._

* * *

Jaken lugged his big staff up the side of a green hill, and finally came to a stop beside his lord. He had wondered what Sesshomaru was staring at, but now understood.

This was the very hill they had stood upon the first day they arrived in China. They had stopped there to watch the new year celebration in the village below, before a crocodile demon started annihilating everyone. But fortunately nobody died, because Sesshomaru eventually killed the crocodile.

"Are we going to stop by and say hello?" Jaken asked stupidly, forgetting that he was still on the wanted list even after a year.

Sesshomaru completely ignored him, leaving him behind. Jaken wailed when he found that he was alone, and ran after his lord apologizing. Slowly, master and servant walked around the village, careful to avoid its inhabitants.

Trudging across the grass, Jaken was busy staring at the extravagant landscape brightened by the descending sun when he saw a dragonfly in the air. The mischievous imp ran to catch it, moving uphill and distancing from his master. There, the dragonfly landed on the trunk of a tree.

Jaken grinned, and sneaked up to the tree like a stalking predator. Then, just as he was about to capture his prey, he heard the sound of soft footsteps. The dragonfly was scared away, and Jaken was visibly disappointed. He looked up and saw a young woman, perhaps seventeen years old. She looked somewhat sad, as if something terrible had just happened.

Then, she gazed upon Jaken and suddenly exclaimed, "It's you! Jaken! You've come back! Does that mean that your master is also here?"

Jaken felt a shiver in his spine. He just noticed that Sesshomaru was standing right behind him. Jaken flinched, and prepared to be thumped on the head for wandering off without permission.

The girl, suddenly cheerful, cried out, "Brother from the East! Do you remember me? My name is Lianhua. You saved me from that horrible crocodile demon a year ago."

Sesshomaru looked at her silently. Then, he turned to Jaken and said coldly, "Let's go, Jaken."

Just as Jaken obediently scurried after his lord, Lianhua determinedly ran and blocked Sesshomaru's path. She looked affectionately at him, and he glared emotionlessly back at her.

"The past year and a half, I really wanted to see you again," Lianhua said childishly, "I'm very thankful that you saved my life."

Sesshomaru said nothing, and looked coldly at her. Jaken opened his mouth to ask her to move out of the way, but was shut up by his lord, who shot a deadly glare at him.

"During this past year," Lianhua continued, "I have turned down every marriage proposal offered to me, and turned away every matchmaker. Because...I could not forget you! Dear brother from the East, please take me with you! I can cook and clean and sew and do housework. I will be your woman and bear your children!"

Jaken looked like he needed a crane to lift his lower jaw. Her words were hardly believable. Lianhua walked up to Sesshomaru and grabbed his arm.

"Please?" She pleaded the dog demon, "I will stick with you through thick and thin."

Sesshomaru looked disapprovingly at the young simpleton. Both her words and the look in her eyes reminded him so much of Sara Asano. As cold-hearted as he may be, Sesshomaru did not ever want to see another woman suffer the same fate as the princess whom he once loved. This girl had a normal life, and Sesshomaru could see that it would be better if he wasn't in it.

"Go home where you belong," Sesshomaru said impassively.

Then, after giving her hand a squeeze, Sesshomaru shook free from Lianhua and took off into the air without another word. Jaken immediately jumped onto his lord's fluffy mokomoko, and both master and servant flew across the beach in the direction of the dock.

Landing softly on the pier facing the warm sunset, Sesshomaru let Jaken down and looked around. There were a few fishing boats tied to the wood, and one other small boat. They could not possibly go back to Japan on a fishing boat, and neither Sesshomaru nor Jaken wanted to board a stolen boat.

Sighing, Jaken walked up to the other small boat. It looked quite new, and was almost spotless. Then, Jaken noticed a little white piece of paper pinned onto it. The paper read:

**For Lord Sesshomaru**  
**Thank you for saving me from Pyromancer Angel. Have a safe journey home!**  
**~Ezekiellia, aka the pink-clothed woman**

"Sesshomaru-sama!" Jaken shrieked, "Look! This boat is for us!"

A gush of wind blew by. Sesshomaru was already on the boat and waiting for Jaken. The green imp scrambled on hastily, grabbing the oar with shocking clumsiness. Then, as Jaken was struggling to untie the boat from the dock, he leaned out a little too far. A small, thick brown book with a leather cover fell out of Jaken's coat and onto the pier, just as Jaken untied the rope. The boat was freed, and started drifting away.

"No!" Jaken screamed, "My diary!"

Jaken reached out to get it, but Sesshomaru grabbed the back of his coat collar to prevent him from jumping into the sea, as the boat had already floated too far from the shore.

"Let me go!" Jaken yelled, "I've been writing in it for all this time!"

"Forget it, Jaken."

Jaken finally stopped struggling and sunk back into the boat, since he knew his lord did not appreciate disobedience. Slowly, Jaken picked up the oar and started rowing away from the land, sulking miserably. Then, he looked out and saw a figure in the distance.

It was Lianhua. She was running towards the pier, shouting something.

"Jaken, row faster," Sesshomaru commanded coldly.

Jaken obediently did as he was told, and the beach became ever more distant. Jaken could just see Lianhua reach the pier, and stare longingly at the drifting little boat. Then, she bent down and picked up the little brown book that Jaken had dropped. Her figure stood unmoving above the darkening water as she became smaller and smaller and disappeared into the distance.

Jaken sighed a long, depressing sigh, walked into the boat cabin and sat down beside his lord. The imp mumbled again and again, "No, I lost my diary. No!"

"Pipe down, Jaken."

Jaken was surprised that his lord didn't thump him and tell him to shut up, so did what he was told. Sesshomaru produced a small, thick blue book and handed it to his servant. Jaken looked at it, before his eyes widened and watered.

"Sesshomaru-sama, you kept a diary too?" Jaken stammered. His lord ignored him.

Jaken promptly opened the little book and stared in awe. The book was filled with page after page of very neat writing. Each page contained a memorable experience. The diary was full of precious memories of a great journey that neither master nor servant would ever forget. This journey in the mainland was adventurous, fun, frightening and rewarding. But most of all, it taught both master and servant important lessons that they would carry with them for the rest of their long, immortal lives.

* * *

Sesshomaru's Journal~~Twenty-First of May, 1503~~  
Sailing against the wind on a bearing of roughly 45° means that the boat will arrive on the west coast of Japan in about one month's time. The compass is a very useful device. Jaken is asleep on my mokomoko with a bubble on his nose. He is so annoying.

_~~May 22nd 1503~~Jaken's Input~~_  
_What? Sesshomaru-sama thinks I'm annoying! No! Jaken the honorable servant is so upset!_

_It's Jaken again, because Sesshomaru-sama seems to be miserable every time we're at sea. And he warns me not to sing, but I don't know why. Today he used a lot of seawater and finally washed all the black hair dye out of his hair. Ah, he looks much more normal now, in his kimono and hakama with his beautiful silver hair. That Ezekiellia sure is attentive. She stocked up the boat with some packaged food. I'd sure like to learn how to prank people from her, but I don't think I'll ever see her again. Same with the Mongolian interpreter. And the nice girls. I made many friends while in the mainland, and I'll never see any of them again. Jaken has such a tough life!_

~~First of June~~  
Traveling at sea has taught this Sesshomaru much about the effects of seasickness on less resilient beings. Jaken sits on the stern and vomits into the sea. I do not wish to look at him. Jaken has filled this page with chaotic and trivial writing.

_~~June 5th ~~_  
_Trivial! Sesshomaru-sama thinks my writing is trivial! No, it is not! Jaken the honorable servant has worked so hard but never gets any credit._

_In the bunch of food Eze-chan prepared for us is this weird block of brown stuff wrapped in paper. There's words written on it that strictly specifies that it's for Sesshomaru-sama. I wonder what it is. Apparently it's some kind of confectionary called chocolate. Sesshomaru-sama seems to like it. He gave me a little square, and oh boy it does taste really, really good!_

~~Twelfth of June~~  
The strength and direction of wind is largely influenced by season, although South-Westerly wind is most common in the rougher areas of these seas. The wind is not particularly harsh during the summer, so Jaken may row the boat in the correct direction without falling into the sea.

_~~June 21th ~~_  
_Jaken here! Finally, I get some time off and Sesshomaru-sama doesn't mind rowing the boat. Well, he probably does mind, because he doesn't seem particularly pleased that I'm scribbling in his journal again. It's been a month since we left Fuzhou, and the wild waves have calmed down. I miss home so much! I wonder if Sesshomaru-sama does too. But I can't be certain of anything, since he doesn't really talk lately._

~~Twenty-Eighth of June~~  
The water is becoming shallower, indicating that there is land close by. This consequential journey is about to conclude, alike many before. I will keep my eyes fixed on the horizon, until I see my homeland again.


	28. Home Sweet Home

Jaken felt the bubble on his nose pop, as morning light crept upon his little green face. Still half asleep, the imp fumbled around for his fluffy pillow, but couldn't find it. Jaken opened his eyes, and saw that his lord wasn't sitting beside him like he was the night before. Confused, he scrambled out of the cabin and saw Sesshomaru standing on the front of the boat, facing the rising sun. The dog demon had not looked so energetic in a long time, and Jaken soon found out why. Facing them in the distance was a shore. They had not seen that very shore for more than a year and a half.

"Sesshomaru-sama!" Jaken screeched, "W-w-we're home! Home!"

Jaken was so excited that he nearly toppled overboard. It took a while for him to calm down and start rowing in the direction of the land. Soon, the beach and shore became clearer. Reefs became visible, followed by a familiar cliff. The sand was still dark, as morning light gradually brightened the costal landscape.

Sesshomaru looked longingly at the beach, and remembered where he had first tied his boat on that cold January night he departed from home. Then, his eyebrows lowered, as if he was doubting his own eyes. On the beach a distance away, just barely visible, was a person wearing a pink dress. A little girl, sitting in the sand. Before long, she stood up and ran across the shoreline, waving at the small boat. Sesshomaru could never forget that wave or that pink kimono, because he was the one who bought it.

"Rin!"

Sesshomaru sprang off the boat and soared across the dark water, leaving Jaken staring wordlessly, wondering what had gotten into his lord. As big as his eyes may be, Jaken's eyesight was not particularly amazing, so he had not yet seen Rin on the shore.

Gracefully, Sesshomaru landed on the soft sand, and was as speechless as his servant when he saw Rin running towards him and calling out his name. She was just as cheerful and beautiful as he remembered her, but she had grown so much taller, and she looked so much more womanly. Even her voice sounded more mature than the little girl he left a year and a half before.

Sesshomaru had missed Rin so much, and seeing her again made him overjoyed. But even so, Sesshomaru was more than surprised when Rin threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly. He gently embraced her as she sunk her hands into his warm clothes.

"Sesshomaru-sama," Rin whispered softly, her eyes watering, "I missed you so much."

"Silly child!" Sesshomaru said firmly, "I told you to return to the village, yet you stayed on the west coast all by yourself for a year and a half!"

"Rin promised to wait for Sesshomaru-sama's return," Rin replied, "So many days I have waited, hoping to see a boat appear on the horizon. But now...you're home..."

Sesshomaru had not thought for even one instant that Rin would actually wait for him like this. He fell silent, as Rin dried her tears on his mokomoko. She rested her cheek on the velvety soft dog's fur for a long time, not wanting to leave his warm embrace.

Sesshomaru realized that he no longer had a gift for Rin. For once, he wanted to take Pyromancer Angel apart for destroying the plush tiger, but she was gravely injured and five hundred miles away.

Then, Sesshomaru remembered Lianhua, the Chinese woman who wanted to marry him. He felt around his pocket, and took out the finely made flowery hairclip Lianhua had given him. He gently ran his fingers through Rin's smooth hair, and pinned the hairclip to her bangs. Then, holding tightly onto Rin, Sesshomaru lifted from the ground and flew into the distance, taking her with him.

"Sesshomaru-sama!" Jaken screamed, madly rowing the boat, "No! Don't leave me! Sesshomaru-sama!"

Jaken saw his lord disappear from his sight, and sighed in despair. Just like so many times before, his lord had gone off with Rin, and he was getting left behind again.

The sun had risen and was high in the sky when a huge white dog approached a castle and looked down at the red carpeted stairs framed by a large, paved square. Then, Sesshomaru reverted to his humanoid form and landed at the bottom of the stairs, where he let Rin down and gazed up at the purple-clothed figure standing before him.

"Sesshomaru, what occasion brings you here?" Inukimi asked, glancing coldly at him.

"Does a son need a reason to visit his mother?" Sesshomaru replied, walking up the stairs and facing his mother.

"Of course not!" Inukimi said sarcastically with a rich lady laugh, "But I don't see you visiting me to say hello everyday. Why are you here?"

Half-displeased at being busted by his mother, Sesshomaru got straight down to business and confessed, "It's about your cousin, Banban."

"Oh, that show-off. He was always inviting us to his home back when your father was around. You saw him in the mainland?"

"No," Sesshomaru said, presenting Inukimi with Banban's broken sword, "He died."

Inukimi emotionlessly took over the sword and commented, "That's a pity. I suppose he died violently, judging by this large dent in his sword."

Sesshomaru said nothing, because his mother was absolutely right. He decided not to tell her about the gruesome details of the decapitation.

Then, he remembered the spear that the Mongolians had given him as a gift for killing the olgoi-khorkhoi. Sesshomaru found absolutely no use for what he considered to be a worthless piece of metal, but he did listen carefully to the Mongolian interpreter's words. The interpreter said that when the destined warrior touches the spear, it will move on its own.

Sesshomaru thought that perhaps his mother would find more use for the rusty old weapon, so took it off from his back and said, "This is for you."

"A gift for me?" Inukimi asked, staring at the dusty spear, "I thought you would give your mother something non-rusty, Sesshomaru."

Sesshomaru ignored her, and held out the spear. Slightly dissatisfied, Inukimi reached and laid one red-clawed hand on the grubby handle. Instantly, sparks of light leaped from the blade of the legendary spear, and it flew right out of Sesshomaru's grasp. The spear danced about in the air as if it was a living creature, before plunging into the concrete ground before Inukimi, making her jump in shock. She stared at her son in confusion and displeasure, waiting for an explanation to this madness.

"You are the foretold warrior, Oka-sama," Sesshomaru remarked plainly, before bidding his mother farewell and ambling down the stairs to Rin.

Inukimi did not object, but curiously examined her new weapon. She then glanced impressively at her son as he disappeared from her sight beneath the stairs.

"Where will we go now, Sesshomaru-sama?" Rin asked innocently.

Sesshomaru walked up to her, and put his arm around her shoulder.

"_You_ will go back to Kaede's," He told her, before taking off from the ground and departing his father's castle with Rin holding tightly onto his fluffy mokomoko.

"Wait, wait, Sesshomaru-sama!" Rin exclaimed, clutching two handfuls of soft fur, "Where's Jaken-sama? Did we leave him behind somewhere?"

_Jaken! I forgot about him!_ Sesshomaru thought, for once acknowledging that he had done something utterly stupid.

But then he relaxed again, because he figured that Jaken would find his way back eventually, like he did so many times before when left behind. So, forgetting about his green servant, Sesshomaru set off for Tokyo with Rin cuddling his mokomoko.


End file.
